Despite facing the thrashing defeat in the final of the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2020, Indian Women’s T20I captain, Harmanpreet Kaur has full faith in her team.
India Women dominated in the group stages of the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2020 as they won all the four matches, including the tournament opener against the hosts Australia Women. While the semi-final was washed out in the rain against England Women, India Women (8 points) qualified for the final for managing more points than England Women (6 points) in the group stages.
However, the hosts and defending champions Australia Women outclassed India Women in the final of the tournament. While the Indians dropped the early chances to dismiss both the Aussie openers Alyssa Healy and Beth Mooney in that final, both the openers took the game away from the Indian team. While Australia Women scored 184/4 (20 overs) in the first innings, thanks to 75 runs from Healy and 78 not out from Mooney, India Women were bundled out for just 99 runs (19.1 overs).
After losing that match, Harmanpreet Kaur claimed in the post-match interview, “The way we played in the league stages, it was outstanding. It was unfortunate to drop those catches today.
“I still have a lot of faith in my team. The upcoming one and half years is important. The future is important for us. We need to stay calm and focus on the areas we need to improve, especially the fielding. We know we weren’t able to win the game because of our fielding. We need to keep these things in mind.”
We just need to think of how we are going to play with more focus in big games: Harmanpreet Kaur
Harmanpreet is very positive on the future of the Indian Women’s national cricket team. While she has full trust in this team, she believes that they now need to focus on how to win big games.
Harmanpreet added, “The future is great for us. We need to trust ourselves. I trust this team. The first game was very good, it gave us a lot of confidence. We have to keep working hard. We are in the right line, every year we are improving.
“We just need to think of how we are going to play with more focus in big games, because sometimes, we are not able to give our best in important games. I hope upcoming years will give us a lot of glory.”
During the Playoffs of IPL 2020, the Indian Women’s cricketers will feature in the Women’s T20 Challenge 2020. Some foreign women cricketers will also feature in this tournament. While one team will be added for the new addition, the four-team tournament will have seven matches, three matches more than the last year. Harmanpreet is feeling positive for this upcoming tournament.
She added, “This year we are hoping for some more games in the Women’s T20 Challenge. That tournament is very important for our domestic cricket and we got two players from there. Hopefully, we do get more players so that they can contribute to the team.”