harmanpreet kaur: Favourites India look to carry ODI momentum into Asia Cup T20

In-form India will look to build on the momentum of a historic ODI series sweep in England when they begin their Women’s Asia Cup T20 campaign against Sri Lanka in Sylhet, Bangladesh today. Indian women haven’t had much success in T20Is of late, but at the continental level, the Harmanpreet Kaur-led side will start as the clear favourites.

Barring their only flaw in the previous edition of the tournament, India have won all Asia Cup titles since the inception of the event in 2004 (4 titles in the ODI format and 2 in the T20 edition). The Asia Cup was changed from ODI to T20I in 2012 and India has won twice, while losing to hosts Bangladesh in the previous edition in 2018.

India will be looking to restore their continental dominance in the tournament, returning after a gap of four years. The 2020 edition of the Bangladesh event was earlier postponed to 2021 due to the Kovid-19 pandemic before being completely canceled.

After claiming a historic silver medal at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games, where women’s cricket made its T20 debut, India suffered a 1-2 loss against England earlier this month. But he made spectacular changes in the ODIs to beat England 3-0 to register a historic series win, marking the end of Indian legend Jhulan Goswami’s international career.

However, the Indian series win rekindled an intense debate over the spirit of the game when all-rounder Deepti Sharma ran out Charlie Dean during the third ODI of the series as the English batsman backed out at the non-striker’s end. . Seven teams are involved in the tournament – India, Pakistan, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, UAE and host Bangladesh. All sides will play each other in a round-robin format, with the top four qualifying for the semi-finals.

Originally published at Pen 18