Harmanpreet Kaur takes fresh guard

Harmanpreet Kaur during the second ODI against England last month

On the eve of today's first of three T20Is against England at Northampton, India women's team skipper Harmanpreet Kaur, 32, said that though Sneh Rana's all-round performance has improved the team's balance, an overall improvement is needed in fielding and scoring consistently, particularly in the death overs.

A balanced side

"At this moment, our team are looking very balanced. We used to struggle for runs in the last few overs, but Rana's inclusion has given us that balance. You need that type of player, who can contribute with both bat and ball. Usually, we have concerns with fielding and power-hitting. We are working on the basic things in fielding with our fielding coach [Abhay Sharma] and have definitely improved across the last three-four matches. We were also lacking in power-hitting in the last five-six overs, so we are also working on that aspect," Harmanpreet said during a virtual press conference on Thursday in reply to mid-day's question on the areas of concern for Team India.

Rana, 27, scored a match-saving, unbeaten 80 and took four wickets with her off-spin against England in the Bristol Test last month, while in the two ODIs, she scored 29 runs and picked up two wickets with an economy rate of 4.35.

Harmanpreet, who scored an unbeaten 171 against Australia during the ICC ODI World Cup semi-final at Derby in 2017, is currently battling poor form, having managed just 12 runs in the Bristol Test and has a total of just 36 runs under her belt from the three ODIs against England recently. However, in the last few months, she has overcome a groin injury that occurred during the fifth ODI versus South Africa last March and has battled Coronavirus.

Need for improvement

"At the international level, you can't just come in and get things easily. But after five innings I have understood where and how I need to improve. In this T20I series, you will definitely see a different approach from my side," said Harmanpreet, who has scored 2,186 runs in 114 T20Is.

"I am someone who likes to train and work hard every day. But, because of Covid-19 and the injury, I didn't get that much time to prepare. This is not an excuse, it's just that I'm someone who needs a lot of time on the ground to prepare," added the Punjab all-rounder, who has been watching videos of her match-winning knocks in a bid to motivate herself.

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