Durham 10th of September : India captain Harmanpreet Kaur did not take England lightly and called England “a very good team” despite them not having all-rounder Nat Sciver ahead of the beginning of the T20I series at the Riverside Ground in Durham on Saturday.On Thursday, Nat, who was named as stand-in skipper in the series against India with regular captain Heather Knight ruled out due to a hip injury that required surgery to repair, announced that she will not participate in the tournament due to health issues.
Without Heather, Nat and veteran seamer Katherine Brunt rested, leadership responsibility now falls to wicketkeeper Amy Jones and talented youngsters like Issy Wong, Alice Capsey, Freya Kemp, Lauren Bell and Sophia Dunkley.
“I am aware that England will be without Nat Sciver (Nat Sciver) However, I think they’re still a excellent team.We must perform well to beat them.In the last 10 days has given us ample time to get ready and we’re in good condition.
Now is the right time to leave and implement the plans.
“Whoever you are playing against, it’s important to remain in the moment and make the correct decision and to take calculated risks.
These things are more important than who is playing against you.If you play well in cricket and you are able to achieve good results,” Harmanpreet said ahead of the first T20I.
In announcing the flexibility in the batting order in the T20I series, Harmanpreet announced that batter Jemimah Rodrigues would not be available for the match on Saturday because she is still recovering from a hand injury in the National Cricket Academy (NCA), Bengaluru.
“Jemi (Jemimah)”Jemi” (Jemimah) is in the NCA, she is getting well.
When we know more about her and how she is doing well in the series we will inform you as appropriate.When we play the T20 format, we talk about our batting orders, but we need to be flexible in it based on the bowler.
It is important to determine who can manage the bowlers effectively and also get the runs we need.In terms of batsmanship, we’ll be flexible based on the circumstances and the team’s run-rate.We will be ready to take all calls.”
After a 2-0 win over England in the semi-finals of the first women’s T20 event at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games last month Harmanpreet is sure that her team will put on a great performance against hosts, particularly with the Women’s T20 World Cup happening next year in South Africa.
“We have performed really excellently in the Commonwealth Games, but now we are getting a fresh beginning for us.We’ll play every game against England and they’ve always been successful against us.For us, it’s going to be a very difficult task.I am sure that the Commonwealth Games has given us lots of confidence in our team, and we also played well in the patches.”
“But again, it’s an opportunity to make a fresh start and we must start from scratch.We’re all in good form and this event (series) will provide us with a lot of optimism ahead of the (T20) World Cup (next year in South Africa).”
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