Hyderabad: The Indian women’s cricket team has been focusing and working on their mental strength for a very long time to be in the best mental shape ahead of the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2024.
The Indian team’s captain Harmanpreet Kaur said working on the mental aspect is aimed to help the players bring the best out of themselves. “We have been working on mental strength for a long time. The last three or four overs are the most crucial. T20 cricket is not a small format; at the end of the day, you are playing 40 overs. The team who is strong in the last four or five overs, goes on to win the match. We have been focusing on this for a while. If we can remain mentally stable in those final five overs, we can execute what’s best for us,” Harmanpreet told Star Sports.
India have always been finishing second best in crunch and big tournaments and the team would be desperate to turn around that statistic.
India lost to Australia by 85 runs in the 2020 edition of the ICC T20 Women’s World Cup and did no better in the previous World Cup final they played. They lost the ODI World Cup final to England by just nine runs, after slipping from a comfortable and winning position.
India also lost to Australia in the 2022 Commonwealth Games final – gold medal match – to end up with the silver medal.
Recently, the Indian team lost the Asia Cup final to Sri Lanka too.
Harmanpreet said the mental strength training is to bring the best out of every player during crucial moments to avoid another slip-up. “We are working on those aspects, and hopefully, we will overcome this hurdle in the tournament,” the captain hoped.
The ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2024 will be played in Dubai and Sharjah after being moved from Bangladesh due to the prevailing political unrest in the country. Many countries issued travel advisories against its citizens travelling to Bangladesh.
In the T20 World Cup, India are in Group A along with six-time winners and defending champions Australia, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and New Zealand.
