Women’s T20 World Cup: Harmanpreet looks to emulate Rohit & Co

Harmanpreet Kaur, now 35, knows that time may be running out on her for her to lay hands on at least one World Cup trophy. Named captain for the women’s T20 World Cup 2024 to be now held in the UAE in October, she wants to draw inspiration from the way Rohit Sharma & Co ended their drought in the Caribbean recently.

The 15-member squad named on Tuesday has Smriti Mandhana as her deputy and the regulars like Jemimah Rodrigues, the hard-hitting Shafali Verma, allrounder Deepti Sharma, wicketkeeper Richa Ghosh in the ranks. The 'Women in Blue' have had a number of near-misses in ICC events over the past decade, finishing runners-up in the 50-over World Cup in 2017 and the women’s T20 World Cup in 2020, along with several other knockout appearances.

Their stirring performance in 2017, where the Mithali Raj-led team suffered an agonising loss to England at the Lord’s, had done wonders in raising the profile of women’s cricket in the country. Harmanpreet’s unbeaten 171 against Australia in the semi-final in that World Cup is still regarded as one of the finest innings of women’s ODIs.

‘’We have been really inspired by the men’s team, the way they won the T20 World Cup this year,’’ Harmanpreet said at an event in Delhi. ‘’They worked really hard for this trophy and won some tough matches. We need to learn how they maintained their body language for such matches and how they approached such games. We’re on the same road now and getting ready for our (T20) World Cup campaign.

“The team is working really hard and our attempt will be to give our country and fans another opportunity to celebrate this year.’’

Australia match crucial

India are placed in Group A of the tournament alongside Australia, New Zealand, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. There will be little margin of error as only the top two teams advance to the knockout stage, which means India will have to put their best foot forward. Their final group match against Australia is expected to be a crucial one while they will also need to stay on guard against Sri Lanka, who defeated them in the Asia Cup final recently.

 Having come close on multiple occasions, the pressure will be on India to deliver. ‘’The World Cup is a kind of tournament for which all teams prepare differently,’’ Harmanpreet was quoted on the ICC website. ‘’So no team can be taken lightly and similarly no team should be overestimated either.

“Bilateral series have a different kind of pressure and for World Cups, there is pressure as well as expectations and hopes of fans. We are working extremely hard to live up to those expectations, we have been holding camps where all players are working hard.

“We have also worked on the mistakes we made the last time. Now we’re ready with a positive mindset,’’ said the feisty cricketer, who leads Mumbai Indians in the Women’s Premier League (WPL).

The Women’s T20 World Cup will commence on 3 October, with India starting their campaign on 4 October against New Zealand in Dubai. They will stay in Dubai to face Pakistan (6 October), Sri Lanka (9 October) before moving to Sharjah for their final group-stage match against Australia (13 October).