No Regrets Over Team Selection, Says Harmanpreet Kaur After Dropping Mithali Raj For Semifinal Clash
Apr 6, 2019 at 2:05 PM
India skipper Harmanpreet Kaur defended the team-management’s decision to drop veteran Mithali Raj for the semifinal clash against England. India sprung a huge surprise by leaving out Mithali Raj from their playing eleven for the semifinal clash. And the move eventually backfired as India’s batting flopped, thus ending their journey in the ICC Women’s World T20.
India entered the game on the back of an impressive showing in the group stage. Harmanpreet Kaur & Co. had won all four of their group games and brushed New Zealand and Australia aside with surprising ease.
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Their batters managed to post big scores and the spinners played their part admirably too. However, nothing worked for the Women in Blue as England dismantled them by eight wickets to storm into the final of the competition.
One of the reasons behind the loss was the batting failure. At one stage, India were 89 for 2. However, they lost their eight wickets for just 23 runs to fold up for just 112. Well, the team surely missed the experience of Mithali Raj.
The former skipper had sat out India’s last group match against Australia to nurse a knee injury. Prior to that, she had scored fifties in both the games she had batted in. However, the team-management surprisingly decided to drop her for the crucial clash.
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But speaking after the game, skipper Harmanpreet Kaur defended the big decision, saying that she has no regrets over the big call.
“Whatever we decided, we decided for the team. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t, no regrets. I’m proud of the way my girls played through the tournament. This is a learning for us because we are a young team. Sometimes you have to change your game according to the wicket,” she said at the post-match presentation.
“England bowled really well, read the wicket really well. It was not an easy total to chase, and our bowlers bowled really well. We stretched the match till the 18th over. I think we are a young team and we still need to work on our mental strength. If we can work on how to play under pressure, that will change how we play these games,” she added.
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