India captain Harmanpreet Kaur on Thursday said her team is not singling out any opponent in the Women’s T20 Asia Cup and will instead focus on playing good cricket, while expecting a challenging tournament with the standard of Asian teams improving rapidly. The Asia Cup features India, Pakistan, defending champions Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, hosts UAE, Thailand, Hong Kong China, and Indonesia. The ODI world champions India enter the Women’s T20 Asia Cup as one of the favourites, but Harmanpreet played down the hype surrounding her team’s much-anticipated clash against Pakistan on September 5.
The Indian skipper said her team would not allow external factors to distract it.
India captain Harmanpreet Kaur on Thursday said her team is not singling out any opponent in the Women’s T20 Asia Cup and will instead focus on playing good cricket.
All the teams have been doing well and our focus is to play good cricket and not to take any team easily,” Harmanpreet said at the captains’ press conference ahead of the tournament, which begins on Friday. “We are not putting any focus on one particular team, which is going to be tough for us. “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. T20 cricket is such that whoever plays better on the day wins. “Whenever we play in Dubai, we are used to the conditions. We have players who can do well in these conditions. We have good batters as well; hopefully, they will express themselves. We have trained hard, and it’s about implementing those things.”
Sana, who became the first Pakistan woman to play in The Hundred for Birmingham Phoenix, said, “We just want to enjoy the match against India on September 5.
The India skipper said they are treating the continental tournament as an opportunity to test themselves under pressure and build on the lessons from their recent experiences. “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,” Harmanpreet said. UAE captain Esha Oza said, “It’s about enjoying what you do, it’s not about trying to prove anything to anyone.
