“We have been waiting for a month to go on field”: Harmanpreet Kaur ahead of India v Sri Lanka T20I series

1 day ago 27

Harmanpreet kaur Women's World Cup ICC president Jay Shah presents India captain Harmanpreet Kaur with the World Cup trophy (Express Photo by Narendra Vaskar)

The Indian women’s cricket team will return to the on-field action after one month against Sri Lanka in a T20 series starting tomorrow.

Indian skipper Harmanpreet Kaur siad that the team has been waiting get on the field. “It was hectic (after the ODI World Cup win), but I want these kind of schedules after every World Cup, so I don’t mind that. But yeah, looking forward for this series, we have been waiting for a month when we will go to the field because end of the day we enjoy ourselves on the field,” Harmanpreet said at the pre-match press conference.

India will face the islanders in the first of the five-match T20I series on Sunday.

Earlier, India announced the squad with youngsters G. Kamalini and Vaishnavi Sharma earning their maiden senior call-ups. Both players were part of India’s title-winning Under-19 Women’s T20 World Cup squad and have also featured in the Women’s Premier League (WPL).

The last time the Women in Blue played the shortest format was between June and July earlier this year in England. India had won the series 3-2. The series will kick-off India’s preparations for the T20 World Cup next year.

Talking about the same, Harman said,” From tomorrow it’s going to start and some new players in the team, it’s the right time to give them a fair chance to understand how we have to go in the next World Cup. So yeah, it’s a very important series for all of us and we just want to play with free mindset and play how we have been playing T20 cricket from last couple of years. Our end goal is the next T20 World Cup in next six months and before that we want to play a lot of T20 cricket.”

Harman also said that the Indian team will play with ‘peaceful mind’ after winning the ODI World Cup.

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“(Before World Cup win) We were going everywhere without trophy and without people calling us world champions, but this time inside that feeling was there, that satisfaction was there, we were happy, we were peaceful, we were humble, we were grateful that this time there is no talks one day that day will come when this team will become world champions,” she concluded.

Indian women squad for Sri Lanka T20I Series

Harmanpreet Kaur (C), Smriti Mandhana (VC), Deepti Sharma, Sneh Rana, Jemimah Rodrigues, Shafali Verma, Harleen Deol, Amanjot Kaur, Arundhati Reddy, Kranti Gaud, Renuka Singh Thakur, Richa Ghosh (WK), G Kamalini (WK), Sree Charani, Vaishnavi Sharma