Indian women’s team skipper Harmanpreet Kaur on Saturday (September 24) expressed her gratitude towards retiring pacer Jhulan Goswami, saying that the latter is “a go-to person” and supported her in difficult phase.
In Jhulan’s retirement game, India defeated England by 16 runs in the third ODI at Lord’s and completed a series sweep.
“When I debuted she was a leader, before the game I told her when I was going through the best time people supported me but when I was in a rough time she was the one who supported me,” Harmanpreet said at the presentation ceremony.
“I wanted to thank her and tell her she is always with us. She is a go-to person, I always called her at low times and she was someone always guiding me.”
The Indian captain also backed all-rounder Deepti Sharma for her dismissal of Charlotte Dean. Notably, Deepti ran out Dean in the 44th over for backing up too far at the non-striker's end when England were on 153/9 while chasing India’s target of 170.
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When asked about it, Harmanpreet said, “To be honest, I thought you will ask about all the 10 wickets which was not easy to take as well. It’s part of the game. I don’t think we have done something new. It shows your awareness, what batters are doing.
“I will back my players, she hasn’t done something outside the rules. After the first game we discussed, we wanted to do really well, we have that much potential. We want to continue this kind of cricket.”
The India skipper, who also earned the Player of the Series award, added, “This wicket was not easy to bat on, our batters did a decent job. We were looking for 170 after losing four wickets.
“After that we knew we have the pace attack and spin attack to take the wickets. We never thought we were out of the game.”
Talking about her own form, she said, “I’m enjoying my time, I want to be there for the team because if I’m there the team is in a positive mode. Today was unfortunate, but otherwise I was watching the ball and batting accordingly.”
(With PTI inputs)
