As the Indian women cricket team gears up for their T20 World Cup campaign against New Zealand on Friday, October 4, captain Harmanpreet Kaur said her team is working hard to achieve holding in the tournament. She also said she is “happy with where the team is”.
The Women in Blue are placed in Group A of Women T20 World Cup alongside Australia, New Zealand, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. They had reached the semi-finals in the previous edition of the tournament.
According to the International Cricket Council (ICC), Harmanpreet said, “Every day I’m going and learning and getting experience from every game. People around me are helping me, they are working hard to make our team go at that level where we want to be.”
She shared that she is happy with where the team is, and “how our team is working hard to achieve small things.”
Meanwhile, New Zealand’s captain Sophie Devine said her team has a number of young fast bowlers coming through. “Their development has been massive the last 12 to 18 months so certainly looking forward to seeing what sort of bowlers they can turn into.”
The ongoing ICC Women’s T20 World Cup is being held in the United Arab Emirates from October 3 to 20.
Ranked no 3 in the world ranking, India, will take on the no 4-ranked New Zealand in what will prove critical to both teams’ hopes of reaching the knockout stages.
India looked to be in good touch during the warm-up matches as they registered impressive victories over the West Indies and South Africa, while New Zealand split their games against the Proteas (win) and England (loss).
Both teams boast a strong top-order, with the likes of Smriti Mandhana and Shafali Verma from India matched by Kiwi counterparts Suzie Bates and Amelia Kerr.
India boasts plenty of depth in their batting line-up, and both teams have some good bowling options, with spin likely to play a major part in deciding who comes out on top.
Squads:
India: Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Verma, Deepti Sharma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Richa Ghosh, Yastika Bhatia (subject to fitness), Pooja Vastrakar, Arundhati Reddy, Renuka Singh Thakur, Dayalan Hemalatha, Asha Sobhana, Radha Yadav, Shreyanka Patil (subject to fitness), Sajana Sajeevan. Travelling reserves: Uma Chetry (wk), Tanuja Kanwer, Saima Thakor. Non-Travelling reserves: Raghvi Bist, Priya Mishra
New Zealand: Sophie Devine (c), Suzie Bates, Eden Carson, Izzy Gaze, Maddy Green, Brooke Halliday, Fran Jonas, Leigh Kasperek, Melie Kerr, Jess Kerr, Rosemary Mair, Molly Penfold, Georgia Plimmer, Hannah Rowe, Lea Tahuhu.
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