Harmanpreet Kaur Banks on youngsters to Prepare for the upcoming World T20

India had a successful tour of South Africa both with the men and the women’s team defeating the hosts in the limited overs format.

The women’s team returned with a 2-1 win in the ICC Women’s Championship ODIs. The victory was a combined effort of experienced and youth in the team as the management decided to go with four young debutants in the eleven.

Following the ODI series win the Harmanpreet Kaur-led twenty20 team sealed the T20I series win. The women’s team has received immense appreciation for the victory in the Rainbow nation.

India have not done well in T20Is, but despite their poor record in the shortest format and with teens Pooja Vastrakar, Jemimah Rodrigues, Radha Yadav and 20-year-old Taniya Bhatia in their side, the team completely dominated their opposition.

The youngsters received appreciation from the captain herself. Harmanpreet Kaur was all praise for the teens who said that the idea to play them was to test the young domestic performers on the international circuit.

She said:

“If you see, we have only two-three senior players and others players are just coming in. In this year we have the World T20, so we want to give chance to young players in two three series [that we are playing,] After that we will go with the team of 15 and not change [ the combination],” 

She also said, “We felt this is the right time to give a chance to everyone so we will know which players suit us in the West Indies [where the World T20 is].” 

However, Kaur singled out 17-year-old Jemimah Rodrigues who scored 87 runs in three innings and praised her. She said:

“Jemi has performed really well at the domestic level and she has shown her talent at the international level now, so we had that faith in her to bat up the order.” 

Harmanpreet is the vice-captain of the ODI team and added that she loves the added responsibility in the 50 over format.

She added:

“I always enjoy captaincy, whenever I lead I feel like I am involved in the game and that always gives me a lot of confidence.”

India will play Australia and England in bilateral series at home next, followed by a T20 tri-series between the three. Kaur is confident that the team will carry the momentum from South Africa and perform well:

“Both teams are good we know it is not going to be easy it is a high level of competition and we are ready for that.” 

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