Dubai, Oct 9 (Representative) India will have skipper Harmanpreet Kaur available for their crucial meeting with Sri Lanka at the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2024. The Indian captain was forced to retire hurt in the closing stages of the successful chase against Pakistan, putting her participation in the Group A clash in doubt. However, opener Smriti Mandhana confirmed that Kaur would be available to take on the Sri Lankans in Dubai, in a game that India need to win to stay in contention for the semi-finals. Having lost their opener to New Zealand, India will likely need to win both of their remaining fixtures – the other is against Australia – while boosting their net run-rate, to have a chance of making the last four. But Mandhana warned that the first priority must be securing victory against Sri Lanka, with conditions making it difficult to focus on net run-rate. She said, “The conditions are a lot different to what you expect as a batter, so you are probably thinking to get that run rate high and firstly you have to win the match, that’s the first priority for us.
“As batters, we have to be really smart. We can’t just go out there thinking that we are going to take on this bowling lineup and we are just going to cruise because of course the conditions and the outfield is a lot different,” Mandhana said. “We have to keep that net run rate in mind but first priority is winning the match. If at some point tomorrow there’s a place where we can think about the net run rate, of course, we will. But I thinka win is the priority,” she said.India bounced back from a heavy opening defeat to New Zealand with a six-wicket victory against Pakistan.But they required nearly 19 overs to chase down a target of 106, and Mandhana admits the team has not found their best form as yet.She added, “I think the brand of cricket which we want to play, definitely I would say that the first match we could not do that, even in the second match, I wouldn’t say we played 100% of our cricket.”“I’m sure we are still better than what we have been playing. I think it’s just one day at a time, just keep doing your stuff. I wouldn’t say that the conditions, anyone’s getting used to it. In these conditions, you have to understand your cricket very well, be very smart and know what shots toplay and which shots to play,” Mandhana said.Sri Lanka had come into the tournament with hopes of springing a few surprises, having won the Asia Cup earlier in the year.
But after losing their opening match to Pakistan, they fell to a second defeat to Australia, meaning their hopes of reaching the last four are almost over. For skipper Chamari Athapaththu, who has twice fallen cheaply, it has been frustrating that the team has not matched the form they had shown coming into the tournament.She said, “We played really good cricket last couple of months, against India, Pakistan and England, South Africa, West Indies, we beat some good teams. We beat them on their home soil and our home soil as well. So, we have good positives.”“Even before we started this T20 World Cup we played two warm-up games. We won two warm-up games very easily. But I don’t know, cricket is like that,” Athapaththu said. “Sometimes we are on top, sometimes some days we are in low but our approach is always positive. I hope we can play now the best cricket because we talk about a lot of things in the dressing room, even the team meetings, how we have to play and what we’ve done. And so, we have to adjust a few things as a batting unit. I hope my girls play their best cricket in the middle tomorrow,” she added.