MUMBAI: It has been a tale of near misses and heartbreaking exits for India in the past few editions of the Women's T20 World Cup, but at the team's pre-departure press conference at the BCCI HQ here on Tuesday, India skipper Harmanpreet Kaur, flanked by head coach Amol Muzumdar and chief selector Neetu David, asserted that her side had ticked all the boxes.
The event begins in the UAE on Oct 3, with India launching their campaign against New Zealand in Dubai a day later. The tournament was shifted to UAE following the unrest in Bangladesh, the original hosts of the tournament.
Since the inception of the T20 World Cup in 2009, India have managed to reach the final just once, in 2020, while in the last edition of the tournament, in Feb 2023 in South Africa, they lost in the semifinal.
Replying to the question on how India were planning to tackle Australia, who have clinched six of the past eight editions of the T20 World Cup, Harmanpreet said that her team wasn't daunted by the Aussies anymore, having been involved with them in close, thrilling battles over the last few years.
"Look, their team is good, no doubt about that. We also know one thing that India is one of the teams which can go really hard at them, and I think that is a really positive sign.
"We know that whenever we are playing against them and if we play our best cricket, we can beat them any day and any time. It's a great opportunity for us. They know that this is the one team which is really good and they can beat us," the India captain said.
"This is the best team we are going forward with. The players have been playing together for a long time. We came so close last time and lost in the semis (2023). We have ticked all the boxes in terms of preparation, compared to the small things (that) were not there maybe in earlier editions," she stressed.
While they haven't played international cricket since July 28 when they suffered a stunning eight wicket defeat to Sri Lanka in the final of the Asia Cup in Dambulla, the Indian women's team has had a lengthy preparatory camp at the National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru. "During the Asia Cup, we played good cricket, just one odd day things did not go to plan," Harmanpreet said.
Talking about how the team's think-tank went about working on areas which needed improvement, Muzumdar said, "We did identify a few things (after the loss to Sri Lanka). We first had a fitness and fielding camp. Then we had a 10-day skills-only camp. We brought in a sports psychologist. She has been fantastic with the group. We focused on enhancing athletic ability, all-round fielding abilities, there were yoga sessions and psychological sessions were added."
Muzumdar refused to reveal who would bat at No. 3, though Yastika Bhatia is likely to take up the pivotal position.
