India’s T20I captain Harmanpreet Kaur credited Women’s Big Bash League in Australia for bringing a decisive mindset change in her. She lauded the WBBL as an eye-opener of sorts with regards to standards in fitness and training efficiency.
July 31 of 2016 was a red-letter day in Indian Women's cricket for it was when Harmanpreet became the first Indian to be signed up for the T20 league.
"It made a lot of difference. I can say that there's a big difference in my mindset now and what it was before. I don't know why previously we used to look for our comfort zone - scoring as per our comfort - but Big Bash was a completely new experience for me, “Harmanpreet told Cricbuzz.
WATCH: Harmanpreet Kaur bamboozles fans with her amazing magic trick
"I had to go and play with different players who I don't know at all, and about whom I've not even heard about before. To stay with them for a month/month and a half, and play with them... because previously we'd played cricket amongst our people so you'd not think too much about you're out of home, how you are, etc. But to go there, to do everything by yourself from morning to night and to play cricket along with that, I've learnt a lot from that,” she added.
She singled out the change in her fitness and training regimen that WBBL brought. "We didn't give enough respect to time (here) - at what time you train, at what time you leave the ground, we don't do these things. So in the time period, we got (over there) to do everything, that was a different kind of pressure," Harmanpreet said.
Elaborating on the carefully curated practice session, she added: "You have only 15 minutes to do everything in the nets... it's not even like you have all day in the nets so you do whatever you want. In 15 minutes you've to do everything, you've to do all kinds of training that you need. So you take that pressure and train. And in a single day, we'd do everything - batting, bowling, fitness, gym - which I've not done in India.”
“Skill-wise we are better batters and bowlers than Australia, England” – Harmanpreet Kaur
“In India, on days when you bat, you may follow it up with some running but you can't do gym because you'll have soreness. But in the Big Bash, in spite of doing all three things in a single day, I was fresh the next day. With that, the mind started getting different messages that I can do everything in a day, and made me think 'why do I keep waiting and saying I'll do this tomorrow or that day after?'. There's nothing like that," Harmanpreet said.
Apart from her Smriti Mandhana, Veda Krishnamurthy and Jemimah Rodrigues have also played in the WBBL and Harmanpreet feels a full six-team Women’s IPL should be the next logical step.
"I've been saying for the last three years that women's IPL should happen. If our mindset can change because of Big Bash.. if in spite of playing so much cricket, we can still get awareness about certain aspects of the game, then just think how much the U-16 and U-19 girls, who are just starting to play now, can gain from the experience of an IPL, even if they're only traveling with the team,” she says.
Smriti Mandhana bats for "five or six-team Women's IPL"; reveals Virat Kohli's inspiring advice
"The things that we're learning at the age of 26, 27, they'll get to learn at 16. It's a huge 10-year gap. And then imagine what kind of a cricketer you'll become by the time you're 24-25. So I think it should be there. I believe we can have at least six teams. Despite making three teams in the Women's challenger trophy, I felt there were a lot of girls who deserved to play and could perform well, so we could've made three more good teams. It's not like we don't have talent," she said.
However, she conceded that one shouldn’t expect WIPL to have the same impact as IPL did in 2008.
“It might take time, probably a year to set such a standard. In two years, I believe we can have a very good tournament. There's not much competition in the domestic circuit to be honest, because there are 33-37 teams, so what competition can you search in that?” Harman said.
"But if IPL starts or any such tournament starts, where there are six good teams including overseas players, then I think it'll be great for our domestic players. Because right now when a player goes from domestic to international level, there's a huge difference. For the first 10 games, she might not even be able to understand how to handle the pressure, and by then the selector might even decide on that player's career - on whether to keep or discard this player,” she signed off.
