Harmanpreet impressed with India’s calmness in 5-0 win

Harmanpreet Kaur has said she wants to carry the “calmness” that the Indian players showcased in Sylhet during their 5-0 series sweep against Bangladesh to the T20 World Cup when the team goes back there after five months.

Unlike the last time these two sides met in Bangladesh, when Harmanpreet was in the headlines for the wrong reasons after India’s 2-1 win in July 2023, there were several positives for India to take home. Barring the fifth T20I when Bangladesh were in the game briefly, it had all been one-sided contests.

“The calmness all the players showed in the series is something I would like to take to the World Cup,” Harmanpreet said after a 21-run win on Thursday. “There was some calmness while batting, while bowling and even in the fielding even though we made some mistakes [today], we know how we can improve, and in the next one month, we will work hard on that.”

India’s captain getting out of a lean patch was one of the big takeaways from this series. Harmanpreet had six single-digit scores in the white-ball series against Australia in December-January. Against Bangladesh, she scored 30 or above in three out of four innings and remained unbeaten on 6 in the other. Apart from her, Shafali Verma and Smriti Mandhana also had two 30-plus scores in an otherwise low-scoring series. D Hemalatha, who was back in the team after 15 months, flexed her big-hitting credentials as well at No. 3, a spot that Jemimah Rodrigues – who missed this series due to back niggle – had made her own in recent times.

With the ball, Radha Yadav starred with ten wickets from five matches, making a strong case for herself in her comeback series after being dropped from the national side following poor performance at the T20 World Cup in February 2023. She was also the Player of the Series for being the highest wicket-taker in these five outings. Deepti Sharma, with her experience, was effective in containing, conceding under five runs an over while Shreyanka Patil chipped in with four wickets from three matches. Asha Sobhana, who was India’s oldest debutant in women’s T20Is at 33, did reasonably well in her two games to take four wickets at an economy of 6.14.

Leading into India’s first away series of the year, all these players had impressive outings in the Women’s Premier League and Harmanpreet was quick to attribute their performance in Sylhet to the confidence, momentum and form gained during the T20 tournament at home.

“The WPL gave our players a lot of confidence,” she said, “because the way a lot of us played in the WPL, we have improved our game during that time, and those results are giving results here. We just need to keep doing the right things, and results will come.”

India’s next assignment will be a multi-format series against South Africa at home in June-July. Then they will then travel to Sri Lanka for the Asia Cup which will be played in T20 format before the T20 World Cup in October. Hamanpreet hopes that India will be able to play their “best cricket” when they return to Sylhet for the World Cup opener against New Zealand on October 4.

“Definitely, this tournament will give us a lot of confidence, [playing] in the conditions will definitely help us. Whatever we learnt here, we can take that to the World Cup. We are really working hard on that. Hopefully, in the World Cup, we will be able to do whatever we can do. I know our team has that much potential and hopefully, we play our best cricket.”

Srinidhi Ramanujam is a sub-editor with ESPNcricinfo