Indian women’s cricket team captain Harmanpreet Kaur feels that the Women’s Asia Cup 2022 will set as the stage for the less experienced players to prepare for the T20 World Cup early next year.
Kaur on Preparation for 2023 ICC Women’s T20 World Cup
Women’s Asia Cup 2022 is scheduled to kick start on October 1 in Bangladesh. Seven teams will participate in the event where a total of 24 matches will be played in Sylhet International Cricket Stadium, Sylhet.
The seven teams are playing in a round-robin stage, with the top four progressing to the semi-finals.
Jemimah Rodrigues who missed the England series owing to a wrist injury has recovered and is expected to play as an opener against Sri Lanka.
“A lot of T20s are coming up ahead of the World Cup. Players who have not got enough chances can also get match time before the World Cup. There are a lot of areas we can work on. We are going to see if somebody else can get a chance in the first six overs and players can also be tried out in the middle overs and death overs.
“Bowling also we need to try for the right team combination. Jemi is fine, she batted in the nets today,” said Harmanpreet while also providing a fitness update on Jemimah.
The T20 World Cup will be played in South Africa in February next year. She also backed 18-year-old Shafali to get back amongst the runs.
“She is doing really well in the nets. Sometimes you are not able to carry that form in the middle. You need to spend some time in the middle and I am sure she will get her form back. Asia Cup will be a great platform for her.
“We will try to give her enough matches to get her confidence back.” Harmanpreet, however, has been batting at her best of late and smashed a memorable 143 not out off 111 balls in England. The India skipper said she is enjoying the added responsibility as the leader of the side.
On a rare series win in England, she said the team’s long-term plans are finally bearing fruit.
“When we went to England we wanted to play good cricket. Practice sessions were calculative. We did not think of creating any history and our plans were good and the results came, we have waited for it for a long time, so we were not surprised.
“The last couple of months, the way we played as team everyone was helping each other. We need to keep doing that to get the results. Watching videos and making plans of the opposition was helpful. We got enough data for all teams here as well,” she added.
India Women Squad for Asia Cup 2022
Shafali Verma, Smriti Mandhana, Jemimah Rodrigues, Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Dayalan Hemalatha, Deepti Sharma, Sneh Rana, Richa Ghosh (wk), Pooja Vastrakar, Radha Yadav, Renuka Singh, Sabbhineni Meghana, Kiran Navgire, Meghna Singh, Rajeshwari Gayakwad
