By: BCCI
While India gear up to take on the New Zealand women’s team in the five-match ODI series followed by a three-T20I series, Harmanpreet Kaur is confident that the Indian cricket team is prepared for the face-off.
While interacting with the media in Bangalore ahead of the series, Harmanpreet said, “We are fully prepared because we had a camp in Bangalore.”
Like her team-mates Jhulan Goswami and Smriti Mandhana, Harmanpreet too believes that the Challenger trophy played ahead of this series has contributed in the team’s preparation. “Challenger Trophy gave us a lot of confidence because a lot of matches were close. I hope we can use that confidence here and we get a good result,” she added.
Shikha Pandey too empasised on the benefits of playing in the domestic tournament ahead of the all important series, the results of which will have a bearing on the team’s direct qualification for the ICC Women’s World Cup 2017. “In Challenger Trophy you have the creme of domestic circuit.
You have the best 26 senior players and best 13 junior players. So it’s the crème you are facing. I would say the level is not exactly international but very close to international so if you get to gauge where you stand, playing those three matches really helps a lot. So it is a good build-up to this series for us.”
Asked if they have had an opportunity to gauge the younger White Ferns players, she said, “We haven’t seen them play much. The only source of information we had was a few videos. We just played one warm-up game against them during the WT20 last year. There are a lot of players in their side who are making their debut. We’ll have a close look tomorrow during the India A match and have our plans in place.”
Speaking about the series ahead and the opposition, Pandey added, “If they can spring a surprise we also can spring a surprise. It’s the same both way. We are well prepared for it. We have our plans in place. If plan A doesn’t work we have plan B as well. That’s not much of a problem for us and we are ready for anything.
“This team is fully balanced. We have 2-3 all-rounders, two medium pacers and batters. We’re fully prepared for this series,” mentioned Harmanpreet.
