India women's team led by Harmanpreet Kaur is entering the T20 Asia Cup 2024 to prepare for the upcoming T20 World Cup. In their campaign opener, India will face arch-rivals Pakistan. The Indian side is high on confidence after getting the better of South Africa in multi-format series at home. Skipper Harmanpreet it is her responsibility as captain to calm everyone ahead of the high-voltage encounter against Pakistan.
"When you play against Pakistan, there is a different atmosphere in both the countries. Both the countries want their team to win.
"As a player, there is a lot of pressure for us. But as a leader, it is my responsibility to make my team feel light in that environment, so that they don't think that we are playing against Pakistan or it’s a pressure game," she told Star Sports.
Like many captains have said about the rivalry between neighbouring nations, Harmanpreet wants to treat it just like another game. Also, she wants players to focus on the back rather than outside noise.
"It will be important for me to make everyone feel that this is also just another game. We have to do well for the team and make the team win.
"Other than thinking about what is going on in the stadium, who are the other people cheering for? Who are they talking about? Just focus on the main things. Don't think about the things that we can't control,” the 35-year-old added.
India vs Pakistan T20 Asia Cup head-to-head
India have had an upper hand over Pakistan in T20 Asia Cup with five wins out of six encounters. However, in the last edition, India lost to Pakistan as Harmanpreet and the team management shuffled the batting order too much in the run chase. But India went on to win the trophy.
‘Greedy to win every game’
Harmanpreet said that the team is hungry for wins and would like to dominate every game.
"The kind of approach we have right now, every day whenever we are going to play the matches, we are giving equal importance to all matches.
"We all are very greedy to win every game, and that is something we feel should be in a team, and this is what everyone in the team is feeling," she further added.
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