INDW vs PAKW: "We Want To Build Our Team For All Conditions" - Ramesh Powar After Defeat Against Pakistan

India lost to their arch-rivals Pakistan by 13 runs in the Women’s Asia Cup T20 at the Sylhet International Cricket Stadium, Sylhet on Friday, October 07. Team India suffered their first loss in the ongoing Women’s Asia Cup as they failed to chase down the target of 138 runs in their fourth match.

Indian women’s head coach Ramesh Powar said the team is looking to put pressure on the youngsters to find new match-winners. Powar defended the Indian team’s batting order for the match, saying that the team is looking to give game time to the young batsmen in the group as the team does not have many matches left before the World Cup.

We Wanted To Expose Young Players – Ramesh Powar

”It’s not a setback… We were not thinking along those lines. We were facing an issue which needed to be addressed,” head coach Ramesh Powar said at the post-match press conference.

Pooja Vastrakar and Dayalan Hemalatha batted ahead of Harmanpreet and Deepti Sharma. The Indian women were bowled out for 124 runs as Pakistan’s bowlers kept chipping at the wickets in the last overs.

“We came in with a purpose that we want to chase the score before this game. We wanted to try not our regular chasers, but someone young, who can take that role up.

“This was our fourth game [of the tournament] so we wanted to expose Pooja Vastrakar, Richa Ghosh, Radha Yadav and [Dayalan] Hemalatha, who are young players and need to go through these pressure situations, “he said.

“Harman [Harmanpreet Kaur], Jemi [Jemimah Rodrigues] and Smriti have been doing it for a long time.

“The purpose was to send the others up so that they can feel that pressure, because we want to fill this gap before the World Cup and we want to do it in the Asia Cup because we don’t have that many games before the World Cup. We only have five games against Australia in India. So we wanted to take a chance and address this issue,” he added.

Powar said the six games in the group stage allowed them to experiment. He mentioned that they wanted to win, but had to address concerns and be ready when they face Pakistan in the 2023 ICC Women’s T20 World Cup on February 12.

“Six league games allow us to do that. If this was a format with two groups and four teams in each, maybe we wouldn’t have tried it. We want to build our team for all conditions and all kinds of pressure situations. Obviously, we want to win, but when we face issues that need to be addressed, we should address it.”

India will play the hosts and defending champions Bangladesh in their fifth game at the Sylhet International Cricket Stadium, Sylhet, on Saturday, October 8.

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