Led by experienced captain Harmanpreet Kaul, the Indian women’s national cricket team has left for the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to take part in the highly-anticipated ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2024. Expectations of success are high as the Indian team prepares to take on New Zealand in the opening match.
With the team in good form and confidence rising, the Indian women’s team will be looking to end a string of close matches and win their first T20 World Cup title. India have historically underperformed in major tournaments, most recently losing to eventual winners Australia in the semi-finals of the 2023 edition in South Africa. Harmanpreet Kaur reflected on past disappointments and sounded optimistic, highlighting the team’s thorough preparation this time around.
“Talking about this team, we have several players who have been playing for a long time and they understand their roles really well,” Harmanpreet said at his pre-departure press conference in Mumbai. “I would say this is the best team we have going into the T20 World Cup.”
“Pooja [Vastrakar] All is well, Renuka [Singh] I really support her. She is [Renuka] She is someone who always brings us breakthroughs. [Reddy] “He is a player who can always bowl a few overs for his team and bat in the deep. Every team has its strengths and weaknesses so you can’t compare our bowling line-up with other teams but I am pretty confident in my team. I know what they do and what they are capable of.”
“During the Asia Cup, I would say throughout the tournament, we played some really good cricket,” Harmanpreet said. “There was just one game on the day where things didn’t go the way we wanted. We sat down and discussed how we wanted to overcome our shortcomings in camp and where we can improve next time a situation like this arises.”
Despite not playing international cricket since their loss to Sri Lanka in the Women’s Asia Cup final in July, the Indian team has been undergoing rigorous preparations at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru. The preparatory camp focused on fielding and fitness to ensure the players are in top condition for the tournament.
India Women’s T20 World Cup squad: Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Verma, Deepti Sharma, Jemima Rodrigues, Richa Ghosh, Yastika Bhatia (depending on fitness), Pooja Vastrakar, Arundhati Reddy, Renuka Singh Thakur, Dayalan Hemalatha, Asha Sobhana, Radha Yadav, Shreyanka Patil, Sajjana Sajeevan.
Publisher:
Saurabh Kumar
Release date:
September 25, 2024