“There was a lot of optimism in the team when we learned he would be available for the Australia series.”
Harmanpreet Kaur, captain of India, praised recently hired batting coach Hrishikesh Kanitkar for the peace he gives to the team and stated there shouldn’t be any issues with the group adjusting to him. Kanitkar will manage the side during the next T20Is against Australia, having been granted the post after the BCCI reassigned Ramesh Powar to the National Cricket Academy (NCA) as men’s spin-bowling coach as part of a “restructuring module”. Powar’s second tenure as the women’s team’s head coach came to an end at that point.
On the eve of the first Twenty20 International against Australia, Harmanpreet said in Mumbai, “I have always enjoyed working with Ramesh sir and we have evolved as a team under him and learned a lot.
Hrishi Sir is there with us and we had a very excellent experience with him in Sri Lanka. He brings in a lot of expertise, and we are only looking forward. We are in good hands. It’s a BCCI decision to move him to NCA and have him work as spin-bowling coach.
We have observed in the past that sometimes in stressful situations, girls need support from some calm figure who can help them through their thoughts. After experiencing it all in Sri Lanka, there was a lot of optimism in the team when we learned that [Kanitkar] would be around for the Australia series.
Everyone was pleased with the way he was presenting things to us. “As a batting unit, he helped us achieve our aims. There were certain games in Sri Lanka where we lost early wickets but still were able to hit 250.”
Kanitkar, who most recently travelled to New Zealand with the India men’s team, served as an interim batting consultant for the women’s team in Sri Lanka. India defeated the hosts 3-0 in ODIs and won the T20I series 2-1. India managed to reach 255 for 9 in the third ODI despite being in a precarious position at 124 for 6 thanks to a 97-run partnership between Harmanpreet and Pooja Vastrakar.
Between July 2018 and November 2018, while Powar was in charge, India advanced to the Women’s T20 World Cup 2018 semifinals. During his most recent tenure, India lost in the group stage of the Women’s World Cup in New Zealand this year, placed second at the Commonwealth Games, and won the Women’s T20 Asia Cup in October.
The streak also included victories in two one-off international matches in England and Australia last year, the latter of which ended the hosts’ historically long winning streak of 26 games.
Although it is still unknown when the BCCI will name a new full-time head coach to succeed Powar, Harmanpreet felt confident that the team would be well-prepared for the Women’s T20 World Cup, which will begin in just over two months thanks to Kanitkar, who is currently the team’s official batting coach.
It might have been challenging if there had been a new coach, she remarked. We want to keep playing the way we have for the past three months, so I don’t think there will be many changes in how we play. With a new coach, you have to explain about how we are working and how we want to move forward. But Hrishi sir already knows the type of work and that is not going to change much.
India decided not to play veteran all-rounder Sneh Rana, Dayalan Hemalatha, and Kiran Navgire, each of whom were especially used in the larger set-up as finishers, in the Australia T20Is. Left-arm seamer Anjali Sarvani, who topped the bowling charts in the Senior Women’s T20 Trophy as well as the Senior Women’s Inter-Zonal T20 Trophy, got her maiden call-up, while legspinning allrounder Devika Vaidya returned to the T20I setup after eight years. Harmanpreet added that the door was not closed on Rana, but domestic achievers have been rewarded.
She claimed that Anjali had taken the most wickets while the others had also performed well. “Selection depends on your performances, and those who have performed well are in the team. Sneh Rana and all are good players; in the upcoming tournaments whenever they will perform well, they will come back. We are having an eye on them. It’s not like if they are not in the side today, we are ignoring them. They are part of the system and when they perform, they will come back.”
Shafali Verma and Richa Ghosh, who are both a part of the Indian team competing in the first Under-19 Women’s T20 World Cup next month, have also been confirmed by Harmanpreet to miss some of the matches against Australia. In the run-up to the senior Women’s T20 World Cup, they will also miss the tri-series that comes next and features South Africa and the West Indies as well.
“If they have the chance to play against Australia before [the India Under-19 camp], it will enhance their confidence,” she remarked. When we play the tri-series in South Africa, they will undoubtedly not be available since they will be playing in the Under-19 World Cup, but they will play till the camp is revealed and then they will join the Under-19 camp as Shafali is guiding.