It is up for debate whether T20 is India's best format, because there is a case to be made that the players are better suited to the slightly longer versions of the game that demand more patience than flamboyance. (Screengrab: BCCI Women/X)
A few seconds before she bhangra-ed her way onto the stage to collect the ICC Women’s World Cup trophy in Navi Mumbai, India captain Harmanpreet Kaur was asked whether this was the start of something special.
“Yes definitely,” she’d say. “We wanted to break this barrier. And now, our next plan is to make this a habit. We were waiting for this win, and that moment has come. Now, next year there is a World Cup, so many big occasions are coming up. We just want to keep improving. This is not the end, it’s the beginning.”
For Indian women’s cricket, a glass ceiling was broken on that famous night in November. And that special group of cricketers, almost in entirety, get back together for the start of another journey, one that is geared towards the T20 World Cup in the United Kingdom in about six months’ time. A five-match T20I series against Sri Lanka, starting in Visakhapatnam on Saturday, will require Harmanpreet and Co to hit the reset button and refocus their ambitions.
As she addressed the press for the first time since that famous night, Harmanpreet cheekily remarked that there’s no need to forget what happened on November 2 in order to get ready for the next challenge.
“The T20 format is one the entire team loves the most. We need to remember the things which have given us the result to be part of this stage,” she said.
It is up for debate whether T20 is India’s best format, because there is a case to be made that the players are better suited to the slightly longer versions of the game that demand more patience than flamboyance. Two ODI World Cup finals in eight years, compared to just one in T20 WCs in recent years, is somewhat indicative of that. The Indians were well below par in the last edition of the tournament in the UAE, playing somewhat timid cricket at the start of the tournament and failing to reach the semifinals.
“We want to play a lot of T20 cricket. We have 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,” the skipper said.
While the majority of the 15 that were on the stage that night in Navi Mumbai will return to action, a couple of new faces are in the mix as well. G Kamalini, the wicketkeeper-batter from Tamil Nadu, is familiar to Harmanpreet, having been a part of the Mumbai Indians set-up. While Richa Ghosh continues to be the first-choice, her wicketkeeping did come under the scanner during the World Cup, so India might be tempted to try out the newcomer in that role perhaps later in the series while Richa can be used as a pure batter.
The other new face is Madhya Pradesh youngster Vaishnavi Sharma, who was surprisingly not picked up by any franchise at the recent Women’s Premier League auction. But she comes in with a solid reputation, having impressed at the U19 World Cup and the subsequent domestic season. N Sree Charani has firmly secured the first-choice left-arm spinner’s spot after a superb World Cup campaign, and India would hope they can unearth another gem in Vaishnavi.
1st T20I: Sunday, 21st December, Visakhapatnam 2nd T20I: Tuesday, 23rd December, Visakhapatnam 3rd T20I: Friday, 26th December, Thiruvananthapuram 4th T20I: Sunday, 28th December, Thiruvananthapuram 5th T20I: Tuesday, 30th December, Thiruvananthapuram