On a high after ODI series sweep over England, red-hot India look to feast on Sri Lanka at Asia Cup

PTI

Sylhet (Bangladesh), Sept 30

The in-form India would look to maintain the momentum after a historic ODI series sweep in England when they open their Women’s Asia Cup campaign against Sri Lanka here tomorrow.

The Indian women haven’t had a lot of success in the T20 format internationally but at the continental level, skipper Harmanpreet Kaur’s team will start as the clear favourites.

Barring the last edition of the tournament, India have won all the Asia Cup titles since the event’s inception in 2004 — four trophies in the ODI format and two in the T20 version.

The Asia Cup transitioned into the T20 format in 2012 and India have won twice since, while losing to hosts Bangladesh in the last edition in 2018. They would look to assert their dominance in the tournament, which is returning after a hiatus of four years after disruptions caused by the Covid pandemic.

The tournament involves seven teams — India, Pakistan, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, the UAE and Bangladesh. All sides will play each other in a round-robin format — a total of six matches each — with the top-four qualifying for the semifinals.

India are looking good at the moment. After suffering a 1-2 defeat to England in the T20I series earlier this month, they romped to a 3-0 ODI series sweep against them.

The team would be keen to move on from the Deepti Sharma-Charlie Dean run-out incident in the final ODI and focus on the target ahead. “The last couple of months, the way we played as team, everyone was helping each other. We need to keep doing that to get the results. Watching videos and making plans of the opposition was helpful. We got enough data for all teams here as well,” Kaur said.

In the batting department, Kaur has been in imperious form. Smriti Mandhana, too, is in good touch but Shafali Verma, Sabbhineni Meghana and Dayalan Hemalatha need to raise their games.

Jemimah Rodrigues’ return to the side after missing the England tour due to a hand injury is good news. Wicketkeeper Richa Ghosh is also in the mix.

With eye on T20 World Cup, Harmanpreet plans to try out fringe players

Sylhet: India skipper Harmanpreet Kaur has indicated that the Women’s Asia Cup will be a lot about giving game-time to the less experienced players as the team prepares for the next year’s T20 World Cup.

The likes of Dayalan Hemalatha and Kiran Navgire were tried out in the preceding series in England but could not make an impact. Jemimah Rodrigues has recovered from a hand injury and is expected to play as an opener against Sri Lanka tomorrow. Opener Shafali Verma is under the scanner following a dismal run in England.

“A lot of T20s are coming up ahead of the World Cup. Players who have not got enough chances can also get game-time before the World Cup,” Kaur said today. “There are lot of areas we can work on. We are going to see if somebody else can get a chance in the first six overs and players can also be tried out in the middle overs and death overs.” pti

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