Adopting aggressive tactics has helped transform Indian cricket: Harmanpreet

Having made her international debut back in 2009, Harmanpreet Kaur has been part of multiple eras in Indian women’s cricket. 

Harmanpreet started her career off under the captaincy of Jhulan Goswami, and played under Anjum Chopra and Mithali Raj before becoming captain herself.

The Indian women’s side did not taste a lot of success in the early days of Harmanpreet’s career, but it’s been a whole different story in the past half a decade or so. 

As it stands, India are the third ranked team in the world in T20Is. After reaching the 50-over World Cup Final in 2017, the Women in Blue have since made it to one more final, the T20WC in 2020, bagged silver medal in 2022 Commonwealth games and gold medal in the 2023 Asian Games.

They are, as it stands, one of the pre-tournament favorites for the 2024 Women’s T20 World Cup in Bangladesh.

India have completely transformed as a side, and Harmanpreet, speaking to Star Sports, put down the transformation to the change in attitude.

"In the last 7-8 years, our team's performance has been very good. Even before that, we used to play cricket, but we weren't able to win so many tournaments, and we weren't able to play such impressive cricket,” Harmanpreet told Star Sports.

“So we always discuss that if there are two options, we will always choose the aggressive option. Before, it felt like we were playing a little scared cricket. When things didn't go according to our plan, we used to get scared very quickly, but now we play a little brave cricket, so we make brave decisions. 

“With time, we have forced people to come to the stadium through our performance."

India breaking the finals drought in 2017 was enabled by none other than Harmanpreet herself. In the semi-final against Australia in Derby, the now-skipper smashed a scarcely-believable 171* batting first, hammering 20 fours and 7 sixes. 

That knock propelled the side to the final, with them registering a 36-run win over the Aussies.

She picked out the 171* as the most special performance of her career.

“On the field, in 2017, when I scored 171, that was something. I remember before that game, one of my friends told me, 'We will win tomorrow only if you score 150 runs.' I said, '150 runs? I have heard that you will score 100 runs, you will win tomorrow,” she recalled.

“150, I mean, what is this demand, right? I will have to score 150 runs to win tomorrow.' So that was stuck in my head for the whole night, and I kept thinking, 'It's the Australian team, so I will have to play something different to beat them,' because they had such a strong team. So I think that was very special for me."

The team India skipper further spoke about why the sport of cricket means the world to her.

“Cricket, I think, is everything to me. Without cricket, I don't think I would be anything. The name that cricket has given me, no other field could have given it to me. So I think, for me, cricket is like a god,” Harmanpreet said.

“Whatever I dreamt of in my childhood, whatever I dreamt of while playing, everything has been given to me by cricket. 

“I can say off-field, when I held the Indian jersey for the first time, I took a photo after wearing it for the first time, and I was just thinking about who deserves this photo first. Should I send it to my parents, or the coach who gave me this platform, who gave me admission to his school, and said, 'I will start cricket in school for you,' should I send it to him? So I was so confused, who should I send first, because both were equally important to me."

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