India’s Dominant 5-0 Series Sweep Victory Against Bangladesh Impresses Harmanpreet Kaur

When the squad returns to the T20 World Cup after five months, Harmanpreet Kaur has stated that she hopes to bring the “calmness” that the Indian players shown in Sylhet during their 5-0 series sweep against Bangladesh.

There were a number of advantages for India to take home from their 2-1 victory against Bangladesh in July 2023, unlike the previous time these two teams met. At that time, Harmanpreet made headlines for the wrong reasons. Everything had been one-sided except for the fifth Twenty20 International, when Bangladesh made a brief appearance.

Following a 21-run victory on Thursday, Harmanpreet remarked, “I would like to take the calmness all the players showed in the series to the World Cup.” “There was some calmness while batting, while bowling and even in the fielding even though we made some mistakes [today], we know how we can improve, and in the next one month, we will work hard on that.”

One of the most important lessons from this series was the captain of India emerging from a slump. In the December–January white-ball series against Australia, Harmanpreet scored six runs in the single digits. She was undefeated at six in one of the four innings she played against Bangladesh, although she scored thirty or more in three of them.

In an otherwise low-scoring series, Shafali Verma and Smriti Mandhana each had two scores of thirty or higher in addition to her. Returning to the team after a 15-month absence, D Hemalatha displayed her power hitting abilities at No. 3, a position that Jemimah Rodrigues, who missed this series due to a back ache, had recently taken up.

After being left off the national team due to a subpar showing at the T20 World Cup in February 2023, Radha Yadav made a good case for herself in her comeback series with the ball, taking ten wickets in five matches. Because she took the most wickets in these five matches, she was also named Player of the Series.

With her expertise, Deepti Sharma was able to limit the opposition, giving up less than five runs per over, and Shreyanka Patil contributed with four wickets in three games. Asha Sobhana, at 33, became the oldest player to debut in women’s T20Is for India. She performed amiably in her two matches, claiming four wickets at an economy of 6.14.

Also Read: Shafali Verma and Smriti Mandhana Lead India to 3-0 Series Victory Over Bangladesh

All of these players had strong performances in the Women’s Premier League heading into India’s first away series of the year, and Harmanpreet was quick to credit their success in Sylhet to the self-assurance, momentum, and form they had developed during the home T20 event.

“We have improved our game during that time because of the way many of us played in the WPL, and those results are giving results here,” she added. “The WPL gave our players a lot of confidence.” All we have to do is maintain doing morally, and good things will happen.”

India’s next task is a multi-format series that they will play at home in June and July against South Africa. After that, they’ll head to Sri Lanka to compete in the Asia Cup, a T20 tournament that takes place prior to the October T20 World Cup. When India returns to Sylhet on October 4 to play New Zealand in the World Cup opener, Hamanpreet believes that they can play their “best cricket”.

We will undoubtedly gain a lot of confidence from this competition, and the conditions will undoubtedly benefit us from competing. We can apply all we’ve learned here to the World Cup. We are putting a lot of effort into that. Ideally, we will be able to exert as much influence as possible during the World Cup. I am aware of how much potential our team has, and hopefully we play our best cricket.”