Harmanpreet on T20 World Cup: 'Want to give the country another reason to celebrate this year'

India women's captain Harmanpreet Kaur wants her team to draw inspiration from the India men's team that won the T20 World Cup in June , when they travel to the UAE for the Women's T20 World Cup in October. While the men's team won the title after 17 years and lifted an ICC trophy after 11 years, the women's team is yet to lift the T20 World Cup. They came close in the 2020 edition, when they were runners-up in Australia.

"We have been really inspired by the men's team, the way they won the T20 World Cup this year," Harmanpreet said at an event in Delhi, on the same day the India's T20 World Cup squad was announced. "They worked really hard for this trophy and won some tough matches. We need to learn how they maintained their body language for such matches and how they approached such games. We're on the same road now and getting ready for our World Cup campaign. The team is working really hard and our attempt will be to give our country and fans another opportunity to celebrate this year."

The women's side last reached the ODI World Cup final in 2017, when they lost by just nine runs at Lord's , before going down to Australia in the T20 World Cup final in 2020, and two years later they again lost to Australia, also by nine runs, in the final of the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham. In last year's T20 World Cup, India went down to Australia in the semi-final , by just five runs, and when they were the favourites to win the Asia Cup in the T20 format last month, they were beaten comprehensively by the much lower-ranked Sri Lanka.

For the upcoming T20 World Cup in the UAE, India are in Group A with Australia, Sri Lanka, New Zealand and Pakistan. Their first three matches will be in Dubai, before they take on Australia in Sharjah. Will India be under pressure against Australia and the new Asia Cup champions Sri Lanka?

"The World Cup is a kind of tournament for which all teams prepare differently," Harmanpreet said. "So no team can be taken lightly and similarly no team should be overestimated either. Bilateral series have a different kind of pressure and for World Cups there is pressure as well as expectations and hopes of fans. We are working extremely hard to live up to those expectations, we have been holding camps where all players are working hard. We have also worked on the mistakes we made the last time. Now we're ready with a positive mindset."

The T20 World Cup will start on October 3 in Sharjah with two matches on the opening day. India's campaign will kick off on October 4 against New Zealand, before taking on Pakistan on October 6, Sri Lanka on October 9 and Australia on October 13. After the round-robin stage, the top two teams from each group will play the semi-finals on October 17 and 18, and the final is scheduled for October 20 in Dubai.