India will play a three-match T20I series against the West Indies, starting December 15 in Mumbai.
India women’s team skipper Harmanpreet Kaur on Saturday (December 14) hoped that her side will be able to regain confidence while playing against the West Indies at home in a three-match T20 series, following a dismal T20 World Cup 2024 campaign in the UAE and a 0-3 defeat in Australia.
India suffered a first-round exit from the Women’s T20 World Cup. While the Harmanpreet-led side managed to beat Pakistan and Sri Lanka in the marquee event, it suffered defeats at the hands of New Zealand and Australia to finish third in the Group A points table.
Subsequently, the Women in Blue bounced back to register a 2-1 ODI series win against New Zealand at home. However, their 0-3 drubbing in the ODI series Down Under has once again put the team under severe scrutiny.
“After the World Cup, we played against New Zealand, we did really well in the home conditions and Australia tour result was not something which we were expecting but lot of learnings for us,” Kaur told reporters in Mumbai before India’s training session ahead of the first T20I against the West Indies.
“In India, whenever we (have) played, we (have) played good cricket, the only (disappointing) thing was (the) World Cup and then the Australia tour which didn’t go according to our plans but apart from that, if I see in this year, we played really good cricket, we won lot of matches in home conditions.”
“These things happen and as a team, it’s very important for us to stay together and think about all the positives we have done in the past,” she added.
Harmanpreet Kaur also defended India’s poor bowling performance in Australia, saying that the attack was relatively young and has learned valuable lessons from the experience.
“Our bowling attack was quite young (in Australia) and for them, it was a great learning playing against such a good team where (they could) see how good players play and how they can improve,” she said.
Kaur, however, refrained from commenting on Shafali Verma’s snub for T20Is against the West Indies despite the right-handed opener being second highest run-scorer this year.
“I would say, ask the right person. I can only talk about the team, (the) team is here and what (all) things we can do to win this series. Regarding Shafali or any other player, (it is) better to ask the right persons,” she replied.
There was very little turnaround time after playing their third and final ODI in Perth on Wednesday (December 11) and Kaur acknowledged the scheduling challenges.
“I am not the right person to answer that. You can definitely ask the right person,” she said when asked if the scheduling could’ve been better.
“To be honest, it is difficult because we are coming from Australia and after the game, only within 4-5 hours we left the country and came back to India,” she said.
“But as a professional, these things happen and we just want to stay motivated and yesterday was a totally off day. We tried to rest well and tomorrow is another game, so looking forward for that.”
Harmanpreet said the team had “good talks” on the way back from Australia. “When we were coming back from Australia, we had good talks in the flight because that was the only time when we can talk and think about how we can start this series. We discussed about how we have to go about in this particular series,” she stated.
“When you have very less time, it’s very difficult to reflect on things which we have done in the past. Staying together is something which is very important and which we have been doing. Whatever (is) in our hands, we are doing that to turn things around.”
(The Indian Express Inputs)