India captain Harmanpreet Kaur has insisted her team will not focus on individual opponents at the Women’s T20 Asia Cup, saying the priority is to produce good cricket throughout an increasingly competitive tournament.
The competition begins in Dubai on Friday, with defending champion Sri Lanka joined by India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, host UAE, Thailand, Hong Kong China and Indonesia.
India enters as one of the favourites, with particular attention surrounding its September 5 meeting with Pakistan. Harmanpreet, however, played down the significance of focusing too heavily on one fixture.
“We are not putting any focus on one particular team, which is going to be tough for us. All the teams have been doing well and our focus is to play good cricket and not to take any team easily,” Harmanpreet said at the captains’ press conference.
“Our main focus is just playing cricket, other than giving focus to the other impact of the game.”
The 37-year-old believes the Asia Cup provides an important examination for India, particularly given the progress made by teams across the continent in recent years.
“Asia Cup is a platform where you can really test yourself and put yourself under a lot of pressure to perform at a level which you expect a lot from your team,” she said.
“This tournament is very important for us as a team to do well. Especially all the teams, they are the ones in the last two-three years we have seen massive improvement. And whenever we are playing against them, they are not giving anything easy to us.
“This is going to be very challenging, but at the same time, our experience will help us.”
India failed to progress beyond the group stage of this year’s T20 World Cup, but Harmanpreet believes the experience from those matches in England can benefit her side.
She also defended India’s squad selection following questions raised by former captain Anjum Chopra.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, but I think we have picked the best team and they have given very impressive performances. That’s why they are here. I’m sure that whenever we go to the field, we’ll play our best cricket,” she said.
Pakistan captain Fatima Sana, meanwhile, said her team wants to play “fearless cricket” and enjoy the India encounter.
“We just want to enjoy the match against India on September 5. T20 cricket is such that whoever plays better on the day wins,” Sana said.
UAE captain Esha Oza also stressed enjoyment and execution, saying her team’s focus would be on implementing what it has worked on in training.
