NAVI MUMBAI: Clearly still struggling to stave off jet lag and fatigue after the long flight back from Australia, a beleaguered Indian women’s team captain Harmanpreet Kaur, under the scanner due to her poor form and captaincy, was in an unusually evasive mood while addressing the press on the eve of the opening T20I of a three-match series against the West Indies at the sprawling DY Patil Stadium.
Her leg heavily strapped when she arrived for the presser on Saturday, Harman, who will need to quickly pick up the pieces from a disastrous white-ball tour of Australia, where the team were thrashed 3-0, let go of certain difficult, but pertinent queries like deliveries outside the off-stump.
After being dropped from the ODI series in Australia, why has explosive opener Shfali Verma, India’s second-highest run-getter in the format in 2024 with 531 runs in 20 matches at 33.18 with a strike rate of 126.73, been axed from the T20 side as well?
“Well, I would say whether to ask the right person because I can only talk about the team. (My) team is here and you know what things we can do to win this series, I think regarding Shafali or any other player, it is better to ask the right person,” the Indian skipper said.
And who exactly in the BCCI devised this gruelling, illogical schedule, according to which the Indian women’s team is playing an ODI at Perth in Australia on Thursday, and a T20I against the West Indies at the DY Patil Stadium-located thousands of miles away in Navi Mumbai-on Sunday evening?
“Well, I think I am not the right person to answer that, you can definitely ask the right person,” she retorted.
Agreeing that it was a tough ask on her team to churn out its best cricket in such a short turnaround time, the Indian captain hoped that a bit of rest that her players got on Friday just after arriving from Perth would help recharge their batteries.
“Well, to be honest, it is difficult because we are coming from Australia and after the time only within four-five hours, we left the country and came back to India but as a professional, these things happen and we just want to stay motivated and yesterday was a totally off day, so we try to rest it well and tomorrow is another game, so looking forward for that,” Harmanpreet said.
While India have won each of their last eight T20Is against the West Indies in the shortest format since November 2019, that winning streak looks under threat considering the way India have been performing in the white-ball formats of late.
