Harmanpreet reveals the reason behind India Women’s loss against Pakistan

Harmanpreet Kaur (PC: Twitter)

India Women suffered a crushing defeat against Pakistan Women in the Asia Cup 2022 by 13 runs. It was a torrid batting performance by the Women in Blue as they collapsed for 124 runs while chasing 138 in their allotted 20 overs. This was the first defeat for India in the T20 extravaganza after they won their first three matches against Sri Lanka, Malaysia, and United Arab Emirates.

The skipper Harmanpreet Kaur believes that the constant change in the batting line-up is the reason behind India’s downfall. The team does not enjoy a stable batting unit as they keep shuffling the position of the players. India experimented with the batters against Pakistan as well.

Harmanpreet dropped herself down in the order to promote Dayalan Hemalatha, Pooja Vastrakar, and Deepti Sharma. Instead of her usual batting position of number four, she came in the middle at number seven. Things did not go as per plan as the captain had to go back after scoring only 12 runs.

The top six batters also failed to make an impact as no Indian player scored even 30 runs. Speaking about the same, Harmanpreet admitted that the team needs to rework its strategy.

Harmanpreet reflects on the batting line-up

During the post-match presentation, the captain reckoned,

“In the middle, we were trying to give the chance to other batters, which cost us today. Because you have to do that as the tournament goes on, but it backfired. It was a chase-able target. In the middle overs, we were not able to take singles and rotate strike, we played too many dot balls.”

Though the middle-order batter condemned the loss, she also believes that it is important to give young players a good amount of time in the middle. With the World Cup scheduled next year, India is hoping to build a strong squad by providing opportunities for bench strength.

Meanwhile, it was only the third time that India Women suffered a defeat against the arch-rivals Pakistan in the shortest format of the game. When questioned about the pressure of competing against the Women in Green, Harmanpreet added that they do not take any team lightly. The captain also believes that losing and winning is a part of sport and India just need to make amends to bounce back stronger.

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