“Ask the right person.” Amid intense scrutiny over her notable exclusion from India’s limited-overs squad on the eve of the series opener against the West Indies, captain Harmanpreet Kaur brushed aside questions over the team’s combination rejig three days into the tour of Australia.
Speaking ahead of Sunday’s first T20I against the Windies in Mumbai, Kaur declined to comment on the exclusion of opener Shafali Verma from the T20I set-up and pacer Arundhati Reddy, who will shine in India’s final ODI in Perth on Wednesday.
If Shafali was dropped from India’s 50-over setup ahead of the tour of Australia, eyebrows were raised as the dashing batsman also lost his T20I spot despite being India’s second highest run-getter this year.
“I can only talk about the team, (the) team is here and what (everything) we can do to win this series. About Shefali or any other player, (it’s) better to ask the right people,” Kaur replied.
Pacer Reddy’s exclusion was also a big surprise after the 27-year-old shone in India’s last ODI in Australia. In an otherwise forgettable series, Reddy stood out in Perth with a good burst of seam bowling, registering four wickets to finish with figures of 4/26. Three days later, Reddy was scheduled to play the Kerala side in the Senior Women’s One Day Trophy in Ahmedabad, when it was expected that she would retain her place in the national side after an impressive outing.
Kaur defended her side’s performance despite the 3-0 loss in Australia, highlighting India’s home series. After failing to advance beyond the group stage in the T20 World Cup in October, India won the ODI series against New Zealand 2-1 at home.
“After the World Cup, we played against New Zealand, we did really well in home conditions and the result of the Australia tour was not what we expected but we learned a lot,” Kaur told reporters.
“In India, we (when) we played, we (played) good cricket, the only (disappointing) thing (disappointment) was (the World Cup) and then the Australia tour which didn’t go according to our plan but other than that. If I see this year “We played really good cricket, we won a lot of matches at home. These things happen and as a team, it’s very important for us to stick together and think about all the positive things we’ve done in the past,” she said.
Harmanpreet declined to comment on his team’s crammed schedule of switching to T20Is within three days of returning home.
“I’m not the right person to answer that. You can definitely ask the right person. Honestly, it’s difficult because we came from Australia and left the country just 4-5 hours after the match was over,” she said.
Why should you buy our membership?
You want to be the smartest in the room.
You want access to our award-winning journalism.
You don’t want to be confused and misinformed.
Choose your subscription package