Harmanpreet Kaur on Women's T20 World Cup: "Our attempt will be to give fans another opportunity to celebrate this year"
India Women's captain Harmanpreet Kaur has said that her team will look to draw inspiration from the Men in Blue as they prepare for the 2024 Women's T20 World Cup in the United Arab Emirates. Harmanpreet asserted that the women's team can learn from the performance of Rohit Sharma and co. during the 2024 Men's T20 World Cup, particularly the approach in tough matches.
The 2024 Women's T20 World Cup will be held in the UAE from October 3 to October 20. Team India's squad for the ICC event was announced by the BCCI on Tuesday, August 27.
At an event in Delhi, Harmanpreet shared her thoughts on the triumph of the men's team in the 2024 T20 World Cup and how it will inspire the women's team during their T20 World Cup campaign in the UAE. The India Women's captain said (as quoted by ESPNcricinfo):
"We have been really inspired by the men's team, the way they won the T20 World Cup this year. They worked really hard for this trophy and won some tough matches. We need to learn how they maintained their body language for such matches and how they approached such games.
"We're on the same road now and getting ready for our World Cup campaign. The team is working really hard, and our attempt will be to give our country and fans another opportunity to celebrate this year," the 35-year-old added.
The Indian Women's team reached the semi-final of the 2023 T20 World Cup in South Africa but went down to Australia by five runs.
"Working extremely hard to live up to expectations" - Harmanpreet Kaur
India find themselves in a tough group in the 2024 Women's T20 World Cup. They are in Group A along with Australia, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and New Zealand.
The Women in Blue don;t have an impressive record against Australia in ICC events and also lost the Asia Cup final to Sri Lanka. Harmanpreet, though, asserted that India will go into the tournament fully prepared.
"The World Cup is a kind of tournament for which all teams prepare differently. So no team can be taken lightly, and, similarly, no team should be overestimated either. Bilateral series have a different kind of pressure, and, for World Cups, there is pressure as well as expectations and hopes of fans," she said.
"We are working extremely hard to live up to those expectations. We have been holding camps where all players are working hard. We have also worked on the mistakes we made the last time. Now we're ready with a positive mindset," Harmanpreet added.
India's campaign in the 2024 Women's T20 World Cup begins against New Zealand on October 4. They then take on arch-rivals Pakistan on October 6, Sri Lanka on October 9 and Australia on October 13.