Published on: Jan 31, 2023
India Women’s captain Harmanpreet Kaur has asserted that the Women’s Premier League (WPL) will lead to the emergence of a lot of young and promising cricketers. The inaugural season of the WPL, which is set to begin in March, will have five teams representing Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Delhi and Lucknow.
Sharing her views ahead of the inaugural WPL, Harmanpreet is hopeful that the tournament will do for women’s cricket what the Indian Premier League (IPL) did for men’s cricket. She said, “We have seen in men’s cricket, how they improved after the IPL. The emergence of talent that we have seen in men’s cricket can be seen in women’s cricket (After the WIPL). It’s going to be very famous worldwide, not just in India. We will see a lot of young talent because of the tournament.”
The hard-hitting batter added that the WPL can also act as a bridge to reduce the gap between domestic and international cricket since local players will get a chance to mingle with international stars. Harmanpreet continued, “The gap between domestic and international cricket can be cut down. It’s very difficult for a young player to straightaway come into the team (from domestic cricket) and face those hurdles in international cricket. Players will start feeling ready for international cricket.”
Shifting focus to the Indian team, the skipper said that they are looking to play positive and attacking cricket, irrespective of the conditions or surfaces on offer. The 33-year-old said, “We have been trying to play like this (attacking cricket) for some time now. I’m really pleased that, now, finally we are seeing the results.
“We regularly discuss in team meetings that we have to play aggressive cricket. It doesn’t matter how the pitch is behaving, we have to remain positive in our approach,” she added.
Harmanpreet went on to add that the players in the team back their abilities and have certain targets which they want to achieve. She concluded, “We have to back our abilities. We want to set certain targets while batting instead of just going with the flow. Previously, we have been caught on the wrong foot with that strategy. We want to rectify that. We need to be mindful of our strike rate.”
Meanwhile, India Women beat West Indies Women by eight wickets in match six of the tri-series in South Africa. Deepti Sharma claimed 3/11 as India held West Indies to 94/6. Jemimah Rodrigues scored an unbeaten 42 and Harmanpreet 32* as India romped home in 13.5 overs.
–By A Cricket Correspondent
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