Why are Gujarat Giants struggling (again)?

With the defeat against Delhi Capitals, Gujarat Giants ended the Bengaluru leg of the WPL winless, in four attempts. It also means they are the only side yet to get off the mark this season.

What's gone wrong with the Giants this season?

Batters failing to put on big scores and partnerships, constant chopping and changing also because of injuries to key core Indian players leading to the team's difficulty in finding a settled combination, sloppy fielding, and lack of power-hitters in the middle are a few areas of concern. But primarily, it's the batting that has hurt the team.

Captain Beth Mooney was quick to point this out after the team's 25-run loss on Sunday. "Scoring a few more runs will be pretty helpful, probably from the skipper to begin with and then flowing through the rest of the team."

Last season, they registered two wins from eight matches and finished at the bottom of the table, and yet, they had five different batters scoring a total of seven fifties. This season thus far, there have been a couple of quick thirties from the top six but nobody has managed to convert their starts to fifties nor stitch long partnerships. Ashleigh Gardner's 40 off 31 against the Capitals was the highest individual score for a Giants batter this WPL.

Despite their top order being strong on paper, this lack of partnerships in the line-up has led to the team posting below-par totals: 126 for 9, 107 for 7, 142 for 5 and 138 for 8. This might have also occurred from the fact that Giants had four different XIs in the four matches - some forced changes and some to figure out the best positions for players.

Last season, an injury to Mooney early in the competition forced them to tweak the opening pair four times. This time, Giants have tried three different opening pairs in four matches - with Mooney opening with Veda Krishnamurthy in the opener, Harleen Deol in the second game, and Laura Wolvaardt in the third and fourth. The team, though, seemed to have zeroed in on the Wolvaardt-Mooney duo at the top. Deol played at one-drop two times before picking up a leg injury in the third game. This led to the left-handed Phoebe Litchfield being shuffled between No. 3 and No. 4 to accommodate Veda and Deol.

Deol, whose extent of injury is still unknown, wasn't the first to be sidelined at the Giants camp. Even before the tournament began, they lost a key young allrounder Kashvee Gautam to injury after she was bought for a record INR 2 crore at the December auction. Allrounder Sneh Rana, who is also a key member of the leadership group, was also ruled out of Sunday's game due to injury.

D Hemalatha was the latest to join the list when she was replaced by Sayali Satghare as the first concussion sub in the WPL after she was struck on her forehead while attempting a catch in the 15th over of the first innings. Though Tanuja Kanwar and Gardner's quick 32-run partnership for the sixth wicket gave Giants hope of a first win, losing a vital cog like Hemalatha in the middle order meant Giants couldn't chase down 164, eventually falling short by 25 runs.

"Obviously, it is disappointing. We would have loved to be on the board, but it has not worked out that way," Mooney said after the loss. "We got a little bit close in the end. Had we had a big partnership through the middle, it would have been easy to chase it down.

"You want to get off to a good start in T20 cricket. The Delhi bowlers bowled well. Had we been 50 for no loss after the powerplay, it might have been a different story. We haven't been good enough, I haven't been good enough. Our batters have let us down."

Adding to their misery, the Giants dropped five chances on Sunday, with Shafali Verma, Meg Lanning, Annabel Sutherland, Shikha Pandey, and Jess Jonassen all getting lives. One of those ended up being costly as Lanning, who was dropped on 30 by Kathryn Bryce at mid-off, went on to make 55.

"Our bowling this tournament has been pretty good, to be fair," she said. "This is the second or third game we are defending a pretty low total. It's been a pretty disciplined bowling effort. We probably have let the bowlers down in the field, to be honest. [It's] Not up to the standards, given how Delhi fielded. We will have to look at that."

With the WPL moving to Delhi, the Giants would want to rectify their errors sooner rather than later and hope they don't end up in the same position as last year.