It is a dawn of a new era for the Indian women’s cricket team after Mithali Raj bid adieu to international cricket last week. Harmanpreet Kaur has ample experience in leading in the T20Is and hence she has been appointed as the ODI captain as well. Her first assignment would be the upcoming limited-overs series against Sri Lanka, beginning June 23. On the tour, India will play three T20Is and three ODIs. The T20Is will be played in Dambulla while the ODIs will go ahead in Pallekele.
On Saturday, Harmanpreet Kaur and head coach Ramesh Powar addressed a virtual press conference where they talked about the impact of Mithali Raj and what the vision for the side is going ahead.
“So, I think we did set some goal during the World Cup, where we were looking to score 300 runs, but we were able to get 270-280. We will look to score more than 300 runs; we do have some players who are playing some really good cricket. If we set bigger targets for us, then we can look for something bigger, and that is what we are going to do in the batting department,” said Harmanpreet while replying to a query from NDTV.
“We will look to give an opportunity to young players who can bowl 10 overs for us, we are trying to do some little things. We did work on that during this camp also, we are having a vision, we will look at that,” she added.
Replying to the same question, coach Powar said: “We are looking for some consistency, we are looking at a winning habit. For that, we all came together as captain, coach, and vice-captain. We have already spoken to the BCCI, and VVS Laxman who is the head of cricket and there have been a few things going on. We are trying to work on our fielding and fitness and take our players to the next level. That is the immediate goal that we are trying to achieve. We want to win World Cups, but it is important that you build a squad which can compete in every condition and against every opposition.”
When asked about the impact of Mithali Raj, Harmanpreet said: “Well, as we all know she has done great for women’s cricket. I do not think there is anyone who can fill this place. We are working hard on the team where we can create some winning combinations and all. If we talk about Mithali di, I do not think there is anyone who can take her place and we will always miss her in our dressing room. If I talk about our team, we have a great combination, the first time we are going to play without our seniors and I think a great opportunity for all of us to build a team. I think we have done great preparation during this NCA camp.”
