Handling pressure will be key in T20 World Cup: Harman

Mumbai, January 23

The Indian women’s cricket team captain Harmanpreet Kaur said at the upcoming ICC Women’s T20 World Cup in Australia, handling the pressure would be crucial — something her side could not do in the last two global showpieces. Harmanpreet was speaking to reporters at the pre-departure press conference ahead of the Tri-series involving England and hosts Australia, which will be followed by the T20 World Cup next month.

India made a semifinal exit in the last T20 World Cup and in the previous ODI World Cup, they had finished as the runners-up. “We were quite close in the last two World Cups, the only thing is we have to keep in mind how to handle pressure in the tournaments. The last two World Cups, we lacked in handling pressure,” Harmanpreet said. “This time we want to enjoy rather than taking more pressure on ourselves, thinking that it is a big tournament. We have to avoid thinking like that and focus on giving our best,” she added.

The women’s T20 World Cup will be played in Australia from February 21 to March 8. India will take on Australia, Bangladesh, New Zealand and Sri Lanka in the group stage. The 30-year-old Harmanpreet, who has played 104 T20Is, said the team needs to focus on enhancing skills instead of thinking about the pressure of performing at the big stage. “The last few World Cups, we put ourselves under too much pressure of playing in a big tournament. This time rather than thinking that we are going for a big tournament, we just want to focus on our skills, how we should play and how to make the team win,” she said. “That will be very important for us and when we focus on these things, we will produce better results,” she added. She counted spin bowling as one of the strengths of her team.

Christchurch to host 2021 women’s World Cup final

Christchurch’s Hagley Oval will host the summit clash of next year’s Women’s ODI World Cup. The 50-overs tournament which will run from February 6 to March 7 will be played across six cities. Auckland will host a bumper opening weekend at the Eden Park, before the focus shifts to matches in Wellington, Hamilton, Tauranga, Dunedin and Christchurch. — PTI