5 Indian players who can take the Asia Cup by storm
In a recently discovered world of recognition and stardom, the Indian Women's cricket side has surged to great heights after a great display of come-from-behind performances in the World Cup held in England last year, ultimately falling nine runs tragically shy of the title win. Ever since they have been closely followed and received their share of appraisal from the public avenues. In the light of this, their performances have been enhanced even more and with a new batch of young energetic cricketers in their arsenal, they have developed a fearless and dominating way of going about their game.
Earlier this year they beat South Africa women at home 2-1 in the one-dayers and 3-1 in the following T20 series. Spurred by the overseas successes, they trounced the touring English side in a closely fought series that went 2-1 in India's favor as they somewhat avenged the previous year's rueful loss to them in the finals by winning the decider convincingly.
They will have their hopes high preceding the Asia Cup T20 tournament that starts in the first week of June. Starting as the favorites, they will look to further the bridge between them and the other Asian sides. Here are five Indian players who can set the stage ablaze with their performances.
1. Harmanpreet Kaur
Recently appointed as the skipper of the T20 side, she will have some work to do after managing only middling performances in India's last series at home. She led the Supernovas side in the one-off Women's T20 Challenge Match and her captaincy stood out. She took a leaf out of David Warner's book of leadership and made as many as fifteen bowling changes, the result being that Trailblazers were restricted to a paltry 129. As much as her batting, look out for her innovative and radical captaincy moves on the field.
The first Indian representative in overseas franchise T20 competitions, Kaur caught the eye of the Sydney Thunder and Surrey Stars with her ability to hit the ball to and beyond the rope at will (remember the onslaught against Australia in the all-important semi-final?), athletic fielding prowess and handy off-spin that is often employed to turn things against the run of the play.