India coach, Hrishikesh Kanitkar, took to the press conference to discuss the preparations ahead of the big tournament, T20 World Cup, nearing where he noted about the performance that the side has shown along with the responsibility that the skipper Harmanpreet Kaur herself has taken, “There is a bit of everything. When a player is not happy with the way they are playing and the results are not coming you usually look at what actually is causing it and usually it’s not just one thing, there is a mixture of a few things.
“Same in this case, there is a bit of things that we work on in the nets, there is a bit of the way she should be thinking about certain situations or the option she should be taking so it’s a bit of everything so changing one thing doesn’t always work so we are covering all the bases.
Talking about the strategies during batting, he said, “The kind of cricket is decided on the surface you play on and chasing or setting a total depends on the surface in a big way. So, Bombay was obviously different now the surface here is different, the conditions obviously different.” He made it clear that a player needs to change her game plans according to the situations available.
Kanitkar kept it quite simple in his approach and that of the team’s while mentioning that he is not going to measure what they are going to face in Cape Town. “We need to get there and see what it is and then decide rather than having a pre-set plan in our minds,” he added.
“She (Deepti Sharma) is an important player for us,” the coach prompted on being asked about Sharma’s role in team, “And any format we play that will just continue and the good thing is she has a method to get runs and bowl well, that makes her consistent. And we just stick to that. She is doing well; she just needs to keep it simple and make sure the basics are all there.”
On Pooja Vastrakar’s return and her inclusion in all the matches, he remarked, “It would all depend on the surface, on the opposition.” He said that it’s not possible for him to announce in which formation the team is going to play.
Praising Kaur, he pointed how professional her approach is towards the game, be it while leading the side or while investing on her own standard gameplay.
Just as Shikha Pandey also returns to the side, he emphasized on it too quoting, “I am happy with the way she is bowling, and Troy is working with her; he is happy with what we see. Like I said, her job, whenever she plays, definitely the taking of wickets is always there but in T20 cricket you also look into stopping runs. Wickets are the results that you get after bowling well or not bowling well. What we are focusing on for Shikha and for all bowlers and batters is that we do what we are supposed to do. “
“We are supposed to play at a certain level of work to get better; we are trying to do that. We are trying to keep the results out of our heads because that just messes your thinking and what you do in the middle. So, although Shikha has not got wickets but honestly it doesn’t really bother much because what we see is what we like and she is working hard, she has got the attitude, she has got the experience, so we are fine with it. I think if she continues in the same way, she will have a good tour,” he concluded.
