‘My Motive As Leader…’ Harmanpreet Kaur Opens Up on Defending Asia Cup Title

New Delhi: Ahead of her team’s women’s Asia Cup campaign opener against Pakistan, Indian skipper Harmanpreet Kaur talked about the importance of a good atmosphere within the team and how she tries to keep all of her teammates comfortable with each other.

The defending champions, India will kickstart their journey towards a record-extending eighth Asia Cup title when they meet arch-rivals Pakistan at Dambulla on Friday.

Speaking about her role as a captain of the team, Kaur told Star Sports that a good atmosphere within the dressing room, where everyone is comfortable and willing to share feelings with each other, betters the team’s on-field performance.

“I feel like there should be such an atmosphere in the team that everyone enjoys each other’s company, and can share their feelings with each other. And when the atmosphere is like that, the team’s performance becomes good as well,” said the skipper.

“So, my motive as a leader is that all of us feel comfortable with each other. And when you do not enjoy it, you feel like you have to go and play with players who you are not comfortable with. But if you feel like you are going to play with your friends and make the team win, that feeling is different. So we want an atmosphere where everyone is happy, supporting each other and the results are good as well. So I think as a leader that is my motive that everyone talks well to each other, enjoy each other’s company and whenever there are hard times, they support each other. So those things are very important for me as a leader,” she added.

Leading up to the Women’s Asia Cup, Team India has enjoyed a lot of on-field sucess, like beating South Africa 3-0 in the ODI series and one-off Test recently in June-July and drawing the three-match T20I series 1-1, with one game washed out due to rain.

Before that, India had a successful tour of Bangladesh, beating them 5-0 in T20Is from April-May.
Between December last year and January, India also hosted Australia for a one-off Test, three ODIs and T20Is each, winning the Test match, but losing the ODI series 0-3 and the T20I series 1-2.

All of these series/tournaments will be crucial for India’s preparations for the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup being held this year from October 3-20 in Bangladesh, where India will be aiming for its first-ever major ICC women’s trophy.

India’s Women’s Asia Cup squad: India: Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Smriti Mandhana (vc), Shafali Verma, Deepti Sharma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Richa Ghosh (wk), Uma Chetry (wk), Pooja Vastrakar, Arundhati Reddy, Renuka Singh Thakur, Dayalan Hemalatha, Asha Sobhana, Radha Yadav, Shreyanka Patil, Sajana Sajeevan. Travelling reserves: Shweta Sehrawat, Saika Ishaque, Tanuja Kanwer, Meghna Singh.