In Short
Amid the debate surrounding the Indian women’s no. 3 spot in T20Is, coach Amul Muzumdar has officially put a conclusion to it. Ahead of India’s T20 World Cup opener against New Zealand on October 4th, the coach revealed the no.3 spot is taken by none other than the skipper Harmanpreet Kaur. Muzumdar revealed that the decision had been internally settled long before the tournament despite the rumors about experimentation. This is quite a different strategy for the team since Harmanpreet most likely acquired No. 4 or 5 spots before. Let’s check out the complete statement of the coach.
Coach Amul Muzumdar said Harmanpreet Kaur’s position has been decided a long ago
As per, ESPNCricinfo Muzumdar said of the decision, “Absolutely. Not just the warm-up games, but we had already decided back in India, during the camps that happened before we set off for the World Cup.”
“These pre-World Cup matches stamped that for us. If you go through the scorecards, it is already there. Is it a surprise? No. If you can guess, you can go through the scorecards and you will find it,” the coach added.
With this change, a significant shift in the team’s batting strategy has been noted since Kaur mostly occupies the No. 4 or 5 spot, and is now promoted to no.3.
The talented batter is seemingly given time to improve her strategy and technique to lead the team more effectively. Kaur has always been the biggest asset of the team thus the management is offering her the pivotal No. 3 position to prove her potential.
Muzumdar added of the skipper, “The reasoning is clear. We want to give her the best chance to get set and take full advantage of her power-hitting.”
Although her scores haven’t been quite promising in the warm-up matches, it’s only an hour’s wait to witness how the strategy will work up for her.
Indian women haven’t won any women’s T20 World Cup titles yet, thus this year all eyes will be on them looking at the progress of the team.
Indian women’s squad for the 2024 T20 World Cup
Harmanpreet Kaur (capt)
Smriti Mandhana (vice-capt)
Yastika Bhatia* (wk) (Subject to fitness)
Shafali Verma
Deepti Sharma
Jemimah Rodrigues
Richa Ghosh (wk)
Pooja Vastrakar
Arundhati Reddy
Renuka Singh
D Hemalatha
Asha Sobhana
Radha Yadav
Shreyanka Patil* (Subject to fitness)
Sajeevan Sajana
Tanuja Kanwar, Uma Chetry, Saima Thakor (Traveling reserves)
Raghvi Bist, Priya Mishra (Non-travelling reserves)
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