Head coach Amol Muzumdar sees “huge scope” for improvement as India prepare to put things right after being knocked out of the recent T20 World Cup without making the semi-finals. He said his team is “hungry” to win and that he wants them to play “aggressive” cricket and “set the tone for the next six months” which includes three multi-nation T20 tournaments: the ongoing Asia Cup in Dubai, the Asian Games in Japan next month and the inaugural Champions Trophy in Sri Lanka in February.

A day before India’s opening game in the Asia Cup, against Thailand, Muzumdar was particularly probed about India’s T20I run this year in which they have won just seven games out of 16, a win-loss ratio of 0.77, only better than that of West Indies, Netherlands and Pakistan among the teams that featured in the last T20 World Cup.

“We don’t pay too much attention to the form that you are talking about,” Muzumdar said. “But at the same time, we know what scope of improvement this team has got. There is a huge scope of improvement. This is a young side. I think, if you look at it, we are trying to play some good cricket, good aggressive cricket. And from here on, we will try and set the tone for the next six months.

“This group has been a special one. There is no doubt about it. We have done well in the ODI set-up. We have done well in the Test matches that we have played. In the last five Test matches, we have won four of them. They are hungry for success. They are hungry for winning some tournaments. Every tournament is important. Every tournament is crucial for this set-up. This set of players are really hungry for success. You would be able to see that in the coming future.”

A number of India’s tactics were exposed in the T20 World Cup in the UK in June when they lost their games to the bigger oppositions – South Africa and Australia – because of poor fielding, middle-order collapses, constant chopping and changing in the side and their fast bowling unit’s inability to pick up wickets. Muzumdar said the team held a camp in Bengaluru recently where they worked hard on their fitness and fielding standards, and now it was about executing their plans.

“We had a fantastic camp at the Centre of Excellence,” he said. “A 15-day camp which was well taken care of by the S&C (strength and conditioning). We worked really hard on our fitness. We worked terribly hard on the fielding part as well. As I said, there is some scope of improvement. We are trying to pay utmost attention to those minute details of certain aspects of the game. We focused on that in that camp. As far as I am concerned, as a coach, I was really happy with the camp and the results of the camp. The preparation has been good. It is just about going out there and executing our plans.”

India had been plagued by injuries to their first-choice players such as Pooja Vastrakar, Amanjot Kaur, Kashvee Gautam and Shreyanka Patil during the World Cup. Most recently Jemimah Rodrigues hurt her hamstring during the Hundred in the UK and has been ruled out of the Asia Cup and the Asian Games. The selectors named the uncapped Pratika Rawal as her replacement but Muzumdar didn’t reveal who would bat at Rodrigues’ No. 3 position on Sunday, saying “we haven’t discussed about the XI”.

“Look, speaking about Jemimah, I have always maintained that she is a clutch player for us,” Muzumdar said. “She will definitely be missed. But then, having said that, her recovery is very important for us. Her rehab is well taken care of at the Centre of Excellence in Bangalore. Yeah, she will be missed, but there are some other players who have come in the team and I am sure they will do well. But having said that, Jemimah will be missed.”