India women's ODI vice-captain Harmanpreet Kaur on Friday said that her side is not feeling any sort of rustiness as they prepare to return to international cricket after a gap of one year.
The women's side would return to international cricket action after almost one year as they will lock horns in the five-match ODI series against South Africa, beginning Sunday. After the five ODIs come to an end, India and South Africa will play a three-match T20I series.
India had last played an international match on March 8, 2020, as the side played Australia in the final of the T20 World Cup. After that, all international cricket came to a halt due to the coronavirus pandemic.
"I do not think we are feeling any rustiness, we are very excited. It was a long break for us, sometimes things are not under your control, but we are very excited and I hope we all will have a great tournament," said Harmanpreet while replying to an query during a virtual press conference on Friday.
"Before this series, we got four-five days to set our combination. We had open nets, we tried some combinations. Before the first game, we will fix what needs to be fixed. We will understand what to do with our batting and how to set our playing XI. There are some fresh faces in the team, but I am sure before the first ODI, we will know our playing XI," she added.
The first ODI against South Africa would be Harman's 100th in the 50-over format. Talking about her journey, the ODI vice-captain said: "I did not know that I will be playing my 100th ODI. I will be very excited because first of all, playing after a long while and my 100th ODI will give me a lot of energy to do better.
"If I talk, as a person, I have learnt a lot. I have seen many ups and downs. When I was in a good frame of mind, I was playing good cricket. Sometimes my form was here and there, during that phase, I learnt a lot. I hope, I will be able to share my experience that I have gained with all of my teammates. I hope my experience will help the youngsters to understand how to treat downfall," she added.
This is the first time that the new Indian women's selection committee consisting of chief selector Neetu David, V Kalpana, Mithu Mukherjee, Arati Vaidya, and Renu Margrate have picked the squad for the team.
Ekta Bisht, Anuja Patil, Veda Krishnamurthy, Tya Bhatia, and Shikha Pandey aren't part of the squad while C. Pratyusha, Yastika Bhatia, Ayushi Soni, Swetha Verma, Monica Patel, and Simran Dil Bahadur have earned their maiden call-ups.
India Women's ODI squad: Mithali Raj (captain), Smriti Mandhana, Jemimah Rodrigues, Punam Raut, Priya Punia, Yastika Bhatia, Harmanpreet Kaur (vice-captain), D. Hemalatha, Deepti Sharma, Sushma Verma (wicket-keeper), Swetha Verma (wicket-keeper), Radha Yadav, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Jhulan Goswami, Mansi Joshi, Poonam Yadav, C. Prathyusha, Monica Patel.
( With inputs from ANI )
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