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After not practising for almost a decade and only once
during a 14-year international career, how do you get ready for a home Test
match?
That is the main obstacle that Harmanpreet Kaur must
overcome. The skipper of India has played in 285 international matches during
her illustrious career. She is now the lone Indian player participating in the
WBBL in Australia. She has become a global sensation in leagues all over the
world.
But remarkably, Harmanpreet will play more home Test
matches in December—against Australia and England in Mumbai—than she has in her
preceding 14 years of international competition. She grabbed nine wickets in
her career’s lone home Test match against South Africa in 2014. She has only
played one Test match since then, full stop, in 2021 against England, and three
Tests in her career overall.
The planning is what makes the task more difficult.
She won’t depart Australia until after Saturday night’s Melbourne Renegades vs.
Melbourne Stars championship game at the MCG. After that, she will only have
ten days to get ready for the beginning of the three-match Twenty20
International series against England, which comes before the December 14 Test
match.
“The Test series is something which we are really
looking forward to because I haven’t played in front of a home crowd [since
2014], so I’m really excited for that,” Harmanpreet told ESPNcricinfo.
“The challenge for us is that we haven’t played with the red ball. We have
been playing with the white ball for so many years, even in domestic cricket
also we don’t have red-ball cricket back home. So the challenge for us is to
make yourself ready in such a short time.”
Due to a thumb injury, Harmanpreet was unable to play
in India’s final Test match against Australia on the Gold Coast in late 2021.
However, she admitted that she watched the majority of the match to attempt and
gain an understanding of how to play long-form cricket and how to tactically
lead her team.
Her short-term priorities, though, are to help
Renegades wrap up the season strong. For a squad that entered the WBBL with
great expectations after bringing in three of the best players in the world in
Harmanpreet, Beaumont, and Hayley Matthews, it has been a dismal campaign. With
just two victories in 12 games, Renegades are firmly rooted at the bottom of
the standings.
The Melbourne derby will be the first women’s game at
the MCG since the historic 2020 T20 World Cup final, where Harmanpreet
captained India against Australia. She said she was thrilled to get the chance
to return to the venue and play there again.
“It’s always an honour to play here at one of the
best stadiums to play,” Harmanpreet said. “When we played the T20
World Cup final here, and before that in some games against Australia, it’s
been always amazing. And now again this season we are getting the opportunity
to play here and I’m really looking forward to that.”