Stressing on the importance of closing out games, Indian women’s team skipper Harmanpreet Kaur on Friday (September 9) said that her side needs the right balance in the batting order.
Last month, the Indian women’s cricket team lost the Commonwealth Games (CWG) 2022 final to Australia at Edgbaston.
Chasing 162 to win, the Women in Blue collapsed from 118/2 to 152/10 and ended up losing the match by 9 runs.
“We are working on that. I know for a long time these things are troubling us. We need to show some patience and after a while we will start getting the results also,” Harmanpreet said on the eve of the first T20I against England in Chester-le-Street on Saturday (September 10).
“That is why this time we have added two more batters Dayalan Hemalatha and KP Navgire in the side who can finish the game for us. They have done really well in domestic cricket, scored good amount of runs.”
“We need to have balance in our side in the lower order, when there is balance things become easier,” she added.
Harmanpreet, however, believes the visitors need to be flexible in their batting approach.
“We need to be a bit flexible when it comes to batting because sometimes you had to see who is bowling and whose performance is better against her and who can get those runs for us.
“Batting wise we will be very flexible. We will take calls according to match situations,” she said.
Harmanpreet Kaur sees the white-ball tour of England as a fresh start after their silver medal-winning effort in Birmingham.
“We have done really well in the CWG but now it’s a new start for us. England have always done well against us. For us it will be very challenging. (But) CWG has given us a lot of confidence,” she said.
India are in England to play six white-ball games. The three T20Is will be played in Hove (September 10), Derby (September 13) and Bristol (September 15), while the three ODIs are scheduled at Hove (September 18), Canetrbury (September 21) and the Lord’s (September 24).
The hosts will be without their stand-in captain Nat Sciver, who has pulled out of the series to “focus on her mental health”.
“She (Sciver) is missing the game but still they have a very good side and I think if we have to beat them we will have to play very good cricket. “Last 10 days gave us enough time to prepare ourselves. We are looking in good shape, and now it is time to just go there and execute. It is very important for us to stay in the moment,” Harmanpreet said.
(With PTI inputs)
