Kaur's white-ball form a concern ahead of T20 WC

You couldn't fault her effort. It was a rare busy month for India women's cricket, in that it was stacked with back-to-back bilateral series.

Three T20Is and a Test against England, followed by a Test, three ODIS and as many T20Is against Australia - all in the span of 35 days. And then there were the training sessions sprinkled along, which is where one got a true picture of the hard graft by Harmanpreet Kaur.

The India captain would bat for over an hour almost every time she turned up for practice. About 20 minutes each in the pace and spin nets followed by 20 minutes against throwdowns. At times, she would even take a break and return for another brief hit before packing up. The commitment was there, as was a sense of desperation.

Harmanpreet got scores of 49 and 44₹ in the Test against England before getting out for a duck in the red-ball game against Australia. But Tests are scarce in the women's game, which is why her performances or lack thereof had only so much significance.