Former Pakistan captain Bismah Maroof announces retirement
Former Pakistan women’s team captain Bismah Maroof announced her retirement from all forms of cricket with immediate effect.
The Indian women’s cricket team has identified a few areas of concern, especially in white-ball cricket, on the conclusion of the multi-format series against Australia with a seven-wicket defeat in the third and final T20I at the DY Patil stadium here on Tuesday.
The third T20I against Australia culminated back-to-back multi-format series for Harmanpreet Kaur & Co as they won both one-off Tests against England and Australia, they were found wanting in white-ball cricket, winning just two out of six matches. India Women scored 147/6 in 20 overs but the Australians reached 149/3 in 18.4 overs to clinch victory and win the series 2-1.
Though India skipper Harmanpreet Kaur felt her team played overall good cricket in the last one month, they need to work on their white-ball game ahead of the T20 World Cup in Bangladesh later this year.
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“I think we always give fight. They also know that. I am proud of my team, they [Australia] are an experienced team and their experienced players play big roles. This is something we need to learn from them,” Harmanpreet said in the post-match presentation on Tuesday.
She identified a lack of quick thinking, inept fielding and overall fitness as areas that they need to concentrate on in the next few months.
“In the red-ball cricket, we know we have time and to analyse, in white-ball we have to be on our toes. We need to be quick. We will go back and work on certain areas,” Harmanpreet added.
“In the first T20, fielding set the tone, we were not up to the mark in the last two. After this break, we will work on our fitness and fielding and come back stronger,” Harmanpreet Kaur.
The Indian team tried a few young players in this series — like Titas Sadhu, and Shreyanka Patil in T20Is while Richa Ghosh and Shubha Satheesh made their Test debut in the two back-to-back Tests. Harman expressed her satisfaction with their performance.
“Youngsters have been great, whenever they are getting opportunities they are going 100 percent,” said the Indian skipper.
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