CWG 2022: Harmanpreet Kaur Wants India To “Set The Tone” Against Australia

The Indian women’s cricket team will start its campaign at the Commonwealth Games on Friday against Australia.

The Indian women’s cricket team will kickstart its campaign at the Commonwealth Games against Australia at Edgbaston, Birmingham on Friday. The side had reached the UK last week, and over the last few days, the side have been preparing to the best of their ability in order to ensure a podium finish. India are placed in Group A alongside Australia, Barbados, and Pakistan. On the eve of the start of the event, captain Harmanpreet Kaur addressed a virtual press conference where she talked about the preparation of the team.

“I think we have always done better whenever we have gotten a chance to play against them (Australia), this time the things are looking really positive, we will try to do our best,” said Harmanpreet while replying to an NDTV question regarding playing against Australia during a virtual press conference on Thursday.

Further talking about facing Australia, Harmanpreet said: “See, for us all the teams are important. Winning all the games is important when you are playing a tournament like this. The first game is always important because you have to set the tone for the team. We have made plans for all teams, it is about taking one game at a time.”

Talking about staying in the Games Village, the Indian skipper said: “Staying in the village is different from other tournaments we play. We are enjoying the experience, wherever you go, you have to carry your card, otherwise, nobody is going to recognise you without your card. Yeah, we are getting used to these conditions, opening ceremony, we are still thinking about that because the next day we have an early game so we are working on that, if things go as per planning, then we will definitely go for the opening ceremony.”

Earlier this week, Harmanpreet’s pictures of warming up with the golf stick went viral. Talking about the same, the Indian captain said: “Actually, it was a warm-up club, whenever I used to go for batting, I used to warm up with a golf stick. In T20 format, sometimes we have to go and hit from the first ball, if your body is fully warmed-up, then it is good for you, so that is why I was using that. My trainer Sagar started with this drill, he gave me that warm-up club, if I am getting to bat late, then I can use that for wrist warm-up, it is helping me, I have been trying it for the last couple of series.”

“We were not able to look at the pitch yesterday but we did get some time in the nets, it was looking like a very nice batting track. You always get help for the bowlers also because of the weather. I think it would be great for both batters and bowlers. If I talk about the team combination, we have a balanced side,” she added.

Further talking about the preparation, Harmanpreet said: “So far, things are looking really well. We have had three practice sessions, everybody is looking in great form and we all are very excited, and it is now the time to delivery,” said Harmanpreet.

“When we went for a Sri Lanka tour, I had asked the girls what is the one thing we want to set for our team, then Pooja Vastrakar answered ‘killing attitude’. So we are working on that, we are trying to get that atmosphere. Everyone keeps on talking about the killing attitude within our team. I do not know what things Australia follows, that killing attitude is one thing that we are working on,” she added.