Last Update: March 03, 2023, 22:37 IST
Harmanpreet Kaur will lead Mumbai Indians in WPL 2023 (Twitter – Mumbai Indians)
Harmanpreet, who herself hails from Moga in Punjab, recalled her initial days in the Indian team and how her former seniors helped her break the ice.
Communicating with young Indian players, helping them navigate the rough roads will be high on Mumbai Indians captain Harmanpreet Kaur’s agenda for their WPL opener against Gujarat Giants on Saturday.
The league will be a huge opportunity for domestic Indian players, who have been in obscurity like their male counterparts until the IPL started in 2008.
Harmanpreet, who herself hails from Moga in Punjab, recalled her initial days in the Indian team and how her former seniors helped her break the ice.
He said, ‘It is very difficult for a young player coming into the team to talk to a senior player. I make sure to reach out to them,” Harmanpreet said in the pre-match conference.
“I remember this from my early days when I joined the Indian team, Jhuludi (Jhulan Goswami) and Anjumadi (Anjum Chopra) made me feel comfortable.
“They were the ones who came up to me and talked to me. They were also very curious to know about me. It is something that I have learned from her and I try to emulate the same thing with the other girls here,” the Indian captain said.
After a tight international schedule over the last decade, Harmanpreet hasn’t got a chance to interact with a lot of domestic players and budding youngsters, which she plans to do during the tournament.
“First, I didn’t get enough time or opportunity to know more about the domestic players and talk to them about the kind of cricket they want to play or the kind of improvement they want.
“We have someone like Sonam Yadav in the MI team, who played in the Under-19 World Cup and I spoke to her yesterday. She was asking me questions about how he bowled in some practice matches yesterday (Thursday) and what I thought about his bowling.
“We also have Dhara Gurjar, she did really well in the practice match, her approach towards the game, how she was running between the wickets, a lot of positive things,” he observed.
Bowlers have a chance to learn from Jhulan
Getting a chance to pick the brain of the legendary Jhulan Goswami is no mean feat.
“We have Jhulan Goswami who is deeply involved with the girls, she already knows most of them as she was traveling with the Bengal team in domestic cricket. She knows him very well. He has shown faith in them,” Harmanpreet said.
For some, there can be a difference between captaining the national team and the franchise team.
But Harmanpreet begs to differ.
“It has almost felt the same till now. I haven’t noticed any major difference. But one big challenge which always remains, which we have also discussed is how to communicate with foreign players as well as domestic players. Go
“We are already doing some team bonding sessions where they are talking with each other and getting to know each other as much as possible in a short period of time. working on.”
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(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed)