India captain Harmanpreet Kaur has urged her team to remain focused on its cricket rather than being distracted by the attention surrounding the much-anticipated India-Pakistan clash as the Women’s T20 Asia Cup gets underway in Dubai.
Speaking at the captains’ press conference on Thursday, Harmanpreet said India would not single out any particular opponent in the tournament. With India scheduled to face Pakistan on September 5, the fixture has already attracted considerable attention, but the Indian skipper insisted that her side’s approach would remain unchanged.
“We are not putting any focus on one particular team, which is going to be tough for us. All the teams have been doing well and our focus is to play good cricket and not to take any team easily,” Harmanpreet said. “Our main focus is just playing cricket, other than giving focus to the other impact of the game.”
The Indian captain acknowledged that Asian women’s cricket has improved significantly in recent years, making the continental competition increasingly challenging. She believes the tournament will provide India with an ideal opportunity to test themselves under pressure and improve their performances in the shortest format.
“This tournament is very important for us”
“Asia Cup is a platform where you can really test yourself and put yourself under a lot of pressure to perform at a level which you expect a lot from your team,” she said. Harmanpreet stressed that the tournament is particularly important for India, given the rapid improvement of their Asian rivals.
“This tournament is very important for us as a team to do well. Especially all the teams, they are the ones in the last two-three years we have seen massive improvement. And whenever we are playing against them, they are not giving anything easy to us.”
“This is going to be very challenging, but at the same time, our experience will help us.” India’s skipper also believes the lessons from their recent matches will prove valuable during the Asia Cup.
“All the experience we have got from the past matches is going to help us, and hopefully we will play our best cricket and enjoy cricket here,” she said. Harmanpreet’s message was clear: India will respect every opponent, embrace the pressure and allow their cricket to do the talking.
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