Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], September 16 (ANI): As the women's ICC T20 World Cup comes close, the Indian skipper Harmanpreet Kaur opened up on her journey as a professional cricketer and how emerging as a cricketer from a city where it had very little presence was not easy for her.
The upcoming ICC Women's T20 World Cup will start from October 3 onwards in UAE. India will kickstart their campaign against New Zealand on October 4, with the arch-rivals Pakistan clash set for October 6. The Women in Blue, who reached the semi-finals in the previous edition, is placed in Group A of the competition along with Australia, New Zealand, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.
Speaking on Star Sports, Harmanpreet, hailing from Moga in Punjab, said, "It has been a beautiful journey. I come from a city where there was no cricket, and playing cricket professionally was not easy for me. But my family supported me a lot, and today, when I look back, it feels good. A lot of people appreciate it."
The skipper said that now a lot of girls are joining not only cricket, but other sports as well and the families are also taking sports seriously.
"When I started, no one saw sports as a career. But now, parents want their kids to play well and choose sports as a career. The way parents think has changed, and it feels good to see that. In the past, only a few parents encouraged their kids in sports, but now, regardless of what they do, parents take pride if their child excels in sports. I think that is a big change," she added.
Harmanpreet also spoke about the diversity in the Indian dressing room, saying that players come from different backgrounds and states and it is good to have such diversity.
"People from various states share the dressing room, and you get to learn about their cultures. I think you can only experience that in sports, not in any other career. It is a beautiful feeling. All the girls on the team are really nice and humble. It feels great to share the dressing room with them and play cricket together," she added.
While excelling as a leader and batter in other formats, Harmanpreet has also scored 3,426 runs in 173 T20Is at an average of 28.08, with a century and 12 fifties in 153 innings. Her best score is 103. She has also taken 32 wickets in the format.
In the T20 World Cup last year, Australia defeated South Africa at home by 19 runs to win their sixth title. Meanwhile, India made it to the semifinals, losing to the Aussies by five runs.
Squad: Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Smriti Mandhana (vc), Shafali Verma, Deepti Sharma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Richa Ghosh (wk), Yastika Bhatia (wk), Pooja Vastrakar, Arundhati Reddy, Renuka Singh, Dayalan Hemalatha, Asha Sobhana, Radha Yadav, Shreyanka Patil, Sajana Sajeevan
Travelling reserves: Uma Chetry (wk), Tanuja Kanwer, Saima Thakor
Non-Travelling Reserves: Raghvi Bist, Priya Mishra. (ANI)