Harmanpreet Kaur to play at Number 3 against New Zealand in their T20 World Cup opener here in Dubai tonight.
Harmanpreet Kaur will bat at number 3 in this World Cup, according to coach Amol Muzumdar.
“Absolutely. Not just the warm-up games, but we had already decided back in India, in the camps that happened before we set off for the World Cup” Muzumdar said ahead of India’s tournament opener on Friday against New Zealand. “We had a lovely camp in Bangalore. We had decided there itself. These pre-World Cup matches absolutely stamped that for us.
“You can guess it. If you go through the scorecards, you will find it.”
It’s a role that has had several occupants lately. It’s also one that emerged from need. mostly as a result of Yastika Bhatia’s injury sustained during the Bangladesh trip; until April, she appeared to be the front-runner.
Since then, Yastika has recovered from a knee injury and is playing for the UAE team. However, it looks like she will have to wait for her chances. In India’s two warm-up matches, Harmanpreet batted at No. 3 and scored 10 and 1. However, it appears that in the grand scheme of things, that was unimportant.
Giving Harmanpreet the best opportunity to maximise her power game once it is established seems to be the thinking behind the choice. Harmanpreet has mostly found herself playing catch up at the position she normally bats at, at four or five. Her strike rate of 94.09 throughout 84 T20 innings since 2022 is telling.
Although Muzumdar could have resorted to Jemimah Rodrigues in an emergency, Muzumdar’s dexterity against spin makes her an important player at No. 4 or 5. The line of thinking is that Rodrigues, a touch player. can find it easier to select gaps with spread out fields.
Despite the limited sample size, Rodrigues hits for 143.81 in 10 innings at No. 5, which is a significant improvement over his 110.19 at No. 3 over 59 innings. Nevertheless, Rodrigues is aiming to advance to “striking from ball one” as the next phase of her T20 batting development.