Beyond The Pitch

Skipper Harmanpreet Kaur believes exalted fitness levels —be it physical or mental—are key to success in this month’s ICC Women’s World T20

- Sayan Mukherjee

SHAPE UP OR ship out—demanded Harmanpreet Kaur Bhullar of her team, though not in as many words, after India failed to qualify for the Tri-Nation Women’s T20 Series final in March this year.

India had just been consigned to their third successive defeat in the tournament—also involving England—on March 26 (after a 36-run defeat to Australia in Mumbai). With just over six months to go for the ICC Women’s World T20 and high expectations that were bound to follow after the team’s run to the One-Day International World Cup final in July 2017, skipper Kaur was aware that a lack of desired fitness levels was a persistent problem.

She decided a public rebuke of her team’s lethargic on-field movement—in contrast to agile Australians and English women—was required to arrest the slide. What followed was a scathing assessment of the team’s limitations, underlying her ‘no compromise’ stance on fitness.

“We definitely need fitter players in the team. When we prepare for the next tournament, I would suggest our support staff to be on the lookout for fit players—who can run all over the ground. We don’t need people who can just stand within 30 yards, because as a captain it is very difficult for me to run around and then set the field,” Kaur had livened up a mundane press conference with some refreshing honesty.

But this wasn’t just another routine passing-the-buck kind of analysis that skippers all around the world resort to, deflecting attention after a string of poor results, rather a demand to her team for raising the bar from a player determined to overcome adversities at all cost.