Women cricket: India to play against England in 1st T20I at Northampton today

Northampton: India skipper Harmanpreet Singh on Thursday attributed her prolonged lean patch with the bat to lack of preparation following her recovery from a Covid-19 infection and groin injury earlier this year.

However, the senior batter is confident of finding her mojo back in the three-match T20 series against England, beginning here on Friday.

“I am someone who likes to train everyday, who likes to work hard everyday but because of Covid and injuries I didn’t get that much time to prepare,” Harmanpreet said on the eve of the first T20.

“These are not excuses but this is the reality which I faced. It’s a matter of one good innings and definitely I will carry on from there.”

“I’m someone who likes to give 200 per cent on the field, needs a lot of time for preparation on the ground. At international level, you can’t get



things easily, the mindset and approach for the game is not that easy.”

A groin injury ruled her out of the T20 series against South Africa in March and there was worse in store for her as she contracted Covid-19 soon after.

Harmanpreet scored four and eight in the drawn one-off Test against England, while in the following three ODIs she had scores of 1, 19 and 16.

“After the five innings I’ve understood, where and how to improve. You will definitely see a different approach from my side in the T20s.

“Right now, I’'m feeling good, physically I’m fit but the only thing I need is some more time in the nets. That’s all I can say. “During this time, I got enough time to train. Now I’m quite confident and I’m ready to play these three matches.”