We have developed winning culture, hungry for more: Harmanpreet
Indian women cricketers are “hungry for more” after a string of impressive victories, with captain Harmanpreet Kaur saying a winning culture is taking shape as they head into the Asia Cup in the UAE and Asian Games in Japan. Fresh from winning the first-ever women’s Test match at Lord’s by defeating England last month, India will now turn their attention to the UAE Asia Cup T20, where they are record seven-time champions, before embarking on their title defence at the Asian Games in Japan.
“We of course expect to win. Our team has been playing very good cricket,” the India skipper, who guided India to a historic Test win against England at the iconic Lord’s recently, told Sony Sports. “The last 4-5 years has been good and where we have played good cricket, dominating cricket, have defeated big teams and won series also.
The Kaur-led side had sealed a huge 270-run win over England at Lord’s, marking India’s second-highest win by margin of runs in Women’s Tests, the fourth biggest overall.
“Now, we are coming after the win at Lord’s and have also won many games on the trot, so the team has already tasted success and will be hungry for more.” In the upcoming Asia Cup, beginning Friday, India share Group A with arch-rivals Pakistan in the eight-team tournament. After losing the last edition to Sri Lanka, India will look to reclaim the trophy, riding high on their recent Lord’s triumph.
“The best thing is, everybody in the team talks about how to win a match, how to win tournaments. So when you have that kind of culture, you always feel motivated and you and you really look forward to go for any tournament. “So this (Asia Cup) tournament is very important and I am sure we will play as a team and once again will make our country proud,” said Harmanpreet.
“I think the biggest challenge is when you have the ‘good team’ tag, playing for those expectations is in itself a very big challenge because we know we dominate Asian cricket and it’s very important to play every match with that domination,” she opined.
On the hype surrounding India-Pakistan clashes, Harmanpreet said the pressure is on another level, something players can genuinely feel despite being accustomed to high-intensity competitive cricket. “No doubt it’s a high-pressure game and as a player you need to deal with multiple things. We keep playing international cricket but the amount of pressure in a India vs Pakistan match, that kind of pressure you don’t feel anywhere else.
