“I did not get much time to prepare and train, but this is not an excuse” – Harmanpreet Kaur

While India will be starting on a high against England in their first T20I on June 9 after their brilliant performance in the last ODI in Worcester, but there is still the nagging stress of India’s T20 skipper Harmanpreet Kaur on being in her best form.

 

Harmanpreet Kaur. Pic Credts: ICC
Harmanpreet Kaur. Pic Credts: ICC

Harmanpreet Kaur said on Thursday that everyone will get to see a different approach from her in the T20I series. The multi-format series currently stands in England’s favor with 6-4. While India will have to win all three matches to claim the trophy, England will just have to make sure they win at least one of the three T20I matches.

Kaur has been struggling to score throughout the series, we still haven’t seen a big knock from India’s Test and ODI deputy. She has scored 4 and 8 runs in the one-off Test at Bristol and 1, 19, 16 (36 runs) in the ODI series.

“Well, every series is important for us. Whenever you play a series, the main purpose is to build the team for the World Cup. Talking about my performance, I am someone who likes to train every day. Because of Covid-19, I did not get much time to prepare and train, but this is not an excuse,” Kaur said during a virtual press conference.

“International level, you do not get things easily, but after five games, five innings, I have understood where I need to improve and in the T20I series, you will see a different approach from my side.”

“Having said that, I got Covid and there were injuries, I did not get much time to train. I like to train and I did not get much time to prepare. We did not get a single practice game; I prefer open nets and practice games as compared to nets. It is about one good inning,” she added.

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India lost the ODI series by 2-1 earlier this month to England. After starting the series on a bad note, India managed to finally get a win in the last ODI match by 4 wickets and was looking like they are finally back in form.

 

Mithali Raj creates World Record. PC: Getty Images
Mithali Raj creates World Record. PC: Getty Images

 

“Yes, definitely, if you see the 2nd ODI, we did not get the win but we got the momentum from there. The way we bowled and fielded was outstanding. Once you get the momentum, that is something you have to continue. The last game was very important for us to get the momentum and hopefully, we carry forward from there,” said Harmanpreet Kaur.

“At this moment, our team is looking very balanced. With Sneh Rana, the balance of our side has improved and it is becoming still. You need players who can give you something with both bat and ball,” she added.

India will three T20Is against England this summer. Starting with the one in Northampton on June 9, then the teams will go to Hove to play the second one and will conclude the series with the third T20I match in Chelmsford on June 14.

India women’s squad for T20I:

Harmanpreet Kaur (Captain) Smriti Mandhana (vice-captain), Deepti Sharma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Shafali Verma, Richa Ghosh, Harleen Deol, Sneh Rana, Taniya Bhatia (wicket-keeper), Indrani Roy (wicket-keeper), Shikha Pandey, Pooja Vastrakar, Arundhati Reddy, Poonam Yadav, Ekta Bisht, Radha Yadav, Simran Dil Bahadur.

Source: ANI

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