New Delhi, Feb 8 : People generally think that titles in today's professional team sports are won through dedication and well-thought-out strategies. But retaining a championship, though, presents a significantly greater hurdle. If a team achieves this, it demonstrates the team and its think tank's commitment to a robust plan and well-executed process.

India's triumph at the 2025 U19 Women's T20 World Cup in Malaysia serves as a compelling example of this. Thanks to nine months of meticulous planning and flawless execution by Bengaluru's BCCI Centre of Excellence coaching and administrative staff, Niki Prasad's team successfully defended their U19 World Cup title in Malaysia, a staggering development which augurs well for the future of women's cricket in India.

The journey to winning the title on February 2 began in April 2024 with zonal camps run by the CoE (formerly the National Cricket Academy), and 100 girls participating in them. The camps provided specific training in all skillsets, following which the 100 girls participated in a zonal tournament in May.

Subsequently, 25 girls were selected to participate in a high-performance camp held in Dharamshala from June 8 to July 8. After that, they played in the domestic U19 T20 tournament for their respective states. From there, sixty girls were selected for the U19 T20 Challenger Trophy in Raipur, and were put into four teams.

Following the challenger tournament, thirty players were selected and divided into two teams, India A and B and competed in a tri-series featuring South Africa at Pune's MCA Stadium in December 2024.

After that, a 15-player team was chosen for the first U19 Women's Asia Cup, along with four stand-bys and a non-travelling reserve. Before participating in the tournament in Malaysia, the players attended a small camp in Bengaluru.

Following their U19 Women's Asia Cup victory, the World Cup-bound team took a short break, before attending a camp again, and then travelled to play the World Cup in Malaysia, a competition they won without losing a game.

The core group of players had trained and played together since roughly April of the previous year, providing them with ample time to prepare and play tons of matches before embarking on their successful World Cup campaign in Malaysia.

Nooshin Al Khadeer, the former India off-spinner who has now coached the U19 to twin Women's T20 World Cup triumphs, was a part of this journey from the high-performance camp at Dharamshala in July 2024.

The recent World Cup victory, Nooshin explained, resulted from the combined hard work of her and other support staff members - batting coach Apurva Desaii, bowling coach Rajib Dutta, fielding coach Shrabani, video analyst Mala Rangaswamy, strength & conditioning trainer Shalini Mantavadi and physio Neha Karnik, as well as VVS Laxman, the head of cricket at the BCCI CoE and his team being the mastermind behind the extensive preparation model.

'So, in this whole process, there was constant and continuous monitoring of every player and their skillsets after the high performance camp happened and it went on till the day the World Cup was won in Malaysia. Like, there were many options for all kinds of skillsets we needed in preparation for the World Cup.'

'The other members of the support staff like Apurva, Rajib, Shrabani, Shalini and Neha were also involved in continuously monitoring every player, and framing the ways behind what was to be done to bring the best out of each cricketer. There were a lot of talks on what should the approach be and how would the attacking form of play with the bat help us in Malaysia,' she said in an exclusive conversation with IANS.

The tactical planning for playing the U19 World Cup in Malaysia went into finer details during the high-performance camp in Dharamshala - like who would be team India's face in the competition, while reflecting on the learnings from the last World Cup win in 2023.

It also boiled down to the think tank taking into account how would the other teams prepare, what would be the conditions in Malaysia and how would the squad look like, as well as what should be the combination of the playing eleven, the number of spinners and pacers needed, the kind of batters India needs, and how would left-hand, right-hand combinations work.

The Dharamshala high-performance camp contained all the answers to the aforementioned questions - if two left-handed spinners were needed, four players were available. Just like that, if the squad composition needed three pacers, six were there. Likewise, if two keepers were the squad requirement, four of them were present.

The preparation in camps was as equally finer as the tactical planning - like how the approach would be when batting first or how could one play aggressive cricket and what should be the fielding ethos. It also helped that the U19 team went through camps on either side of the tri-series in Pune, and the same process was on before leaving for the Asia Cup and World Cup.

By that time, the 20-odd players had absolute role clarity ' like who was to bat at five. Keeping in mind the sticky wickets and unpredictable rainy weather in Malaysia, various match-related scenarios were recreated in simulation games.

On one occasion, batters were told to chase down a certain number of runs in five overs by playing an attacking brand of cricket. On the second occasion, when batting first, the batters' approach in the first ten overs to put up a defendable score was assessed in anticipation of rain curtailing the second phase of their innings.

The bowlers' training included anticipating how Australian and English batters might plan against them, especially in the event of rain. Because preparation and practice were so specific, players had absolute role clarity and were ready to encounter anything at the World Cup.

Practice sessions in Malaysia stayed true to the specific nature of preparation back home - players slated to bowl in the power-play went through their paces accordingly. Players assigned particular fielding positions like long-on, point, long-off and square leg would go about their fielding routines.

Playing eleven compositions were also strategically set - if an opposition team had more left-arm spinners, India clearly played an extra left-handed batter. But if the opposition had more off-spinners, then the other batter would play in place of the extra left-handed batter.

The U19 team's mental toughness, according to Nooshin, was also the key to their tournament win, which enabled them to conquer any difficulty. 'In terms of differences between 2023 and 2025 World Cup wins, if I were to see, there was difference in conditions. Like South Africa was more batter friendly, while Malaysia had more conditions in favour for bowlers, as the wickets were slow.'

'In 2023, there were some known names due to the presence of Shafali Verma and Richa Ghosh. But in 2025, this was a brand new set of players and a fresh team altogether. There were games in Malaysia where rain was hampering the proceedings due to the unpredictable nature of weather there.'

'But then it was drilled into the mind of players during preparation time on how to be mentally strong to dominate and win the matches. All of these fresh players became so mentally strong that they put in superb performances and eventually came out on top.'

If one looks at India's triumph in Kuala Lumpur from outside, it's a proper demolition job done in such a manner that no team ever came close to beating them. Like, the number four batter was captain Niki Prasad, whose chance to bat came only twice in the World Cup.

Add to it, India successfully restricted six out of seven opposition teams to a score of 80-odd or below it, with the exception being England making 112 in the semi-final, which they eventually chased down in 15 overs.

With Trisha Gongadi in exceptional form with her aggressive strokeplay and G Kamalini chipping in, India's top-order never gave any opportunity for bowlers to run through them. It could be called a set play, or the perfect clinical case study of planning, preparation and execution which led to India retaining its silverware in 2025 they won in 2023.

Indian think-tank believed that, unlike the inaugural tournament, other teams would be better prepared for the second U19 World Cup. But India achieved its goal of winning the trophy again, thanks to careful planning and execution from the team coaches and processes laid down by people at the BCCI CoE.

Nooshin predicts the most significant effect of India's second U19 Women's World Cup win will be on U15 players, especially now that the BCCI started a one-day tournament for this age group in 2022. 'The effect of this World Cup win will lead to more girls taking up the sport professionally and further increase the talent pool in the country. I feel that more than the U19 level, its real effect will come at the U15 level.'

'It's because those girls are having a lot of exposure now ' apart from playing the 50-over game, they see the U19 team win the Asia Cup and World Cup, as well as witness someone like G Kamalini getting a deal in the WPL. Plus, they are keeping tabs on what happened in the recent women's Ashes between Australia and England.'

Apart from playing aggressive cricket with bat and ball, the Indian team were very good in their fielding, a department where they looked just far better than the others. Given that many of the U19 World Cup-winning players have some senior cricket experience, their development over the next two years will be fascinating to watch.

'Now that they have a platform set, it's really now up to the players to see how they go to the next stage. It's because there's a saying which goes as, 'har ek paudha ko apna waqt lagta hai ugne mai (every plant takes its time to bloom).'

'So, in that sense, there are situations where one player's growth zooms quickly, while others take time in growing as players. Ultimately, we need to respect the timing of everyone's growth as cricketers from here onwards,' added Nooshin.

With the third U19 Women's T20 World Cup slated for 2027 in Bangladesh and Nepal, teams have time to train. But India's success in 2025, achieved through careful planning and execution, means that their preparations for the 2027 tournament should start in earnest right now. A third U19 Women's T20 World Cup victory is well within their grasp, which can make for a remarkable feat in modern professional team sports if it becomes a reality.

/IANS