Harmanpreet Kaur exudes confidence in the side ahead of T20 WC by calling it “the best ever T20 side” for India.
Harmanpreet Kaur feels “quite confident” about the India team she would have for the Women’s T20 World Cup 2024 because of their calibre of experience.
Twelve out of the fifteen players in the Indian squad have participated in the competition before. With their impressive results in the Women’s Premier League, only Shreyanka Patil, Asha Sobhana, and S Sajana are making their first-ever participation in a World Cup.
“If I talk about this team, we have a few players who have been playing for a long time and they know their roles really well,” Harmanpreet said at the pre-departure press conference in Mumbai. “I can say that this is the best team we are going for a T20 World Cup with.
“Pooja [Vastrakar] is doing well and Renuka [Singh] is supporting her really well. She [Renuka] is someone who is always giving us breakthroughs. Arundhati [Reddy] is someone who can come and bowl a few overs for the team and bat in the deep. I can’t compare our bowling line-up with other teams because every team has its own positives and negatives. But I’m quite confident in my team. I know what they are doing and what they are capable of.”
Aside from the Asia Cup, India’s T20I matches against Australia, England, South Africa, and Bangladesh preceded the T20 World Cup. They levelled the series against South Africa 1-1 following a washed-out game. Although they won 5-0 in Bangladesh and lost the series against Australia and England by 2-1 margins, respectively.
“During the Asia Cup, we played really good cricket, if I talk about the entire tournament,” Harmanpreet said. “It was just one odd game that day when things didn’t go according to the way we wanted. We sat and discussed how we wanted to work on our shortcomings in the camps. And where we can improve if next time these kinds of situations arise.”
India finished runners-up at the T20 World Cup in 2020 and lost in the semi-finals in 2018 and 2023. They also narrowly lost the gold medal to Australia at the inaugural Commonwealth Games in 2022.