Women's T20 Asia Cup 2026 | 'Our focus is to play good cricket...': Harmanpreet Kaur

India captain Harmanpreet Kaur on Thursday said her team is not singling out any opponent in the Womens T20 Asia Cup and will instead focus on playing good cricket while expecting a challenging tournament with the standard of Asian teams improving rapidly The Asia Cup features India Pakistan defending champions Sri Lanka Bangladesh hosts UAE Thailand Hong Kong China and IndonesiaThe ODI world champions India enter the Womens T20 Asia Cup as one of the favourites but Harmanpreet played down the hype surrounding her teams muchanticipated clash against Pakistan on September 5 The Indian skipper said her team would not allow external factors to distract itWe are not putting any focus on one particular team which is going to be tough for us All the teams have been doing well and our focus is to play good cricket and not to take any team easily Harmanpreet said at the captains press conference ahead of the tournament which begins here on FridayOur main focus is just playing cricket other than giving focus to the other impact of the game Harmanpreet did not answer if she would shake hands with her Pakistani counterpart Fatima Sana The India skipper said they are treating the continental tournament as an opportunity to test themselves under pressure and build on the lessons from their recent experiencesAsia Cup is a platform where you can really test yourself and put yourself under a lot of pressure to perform at a level which you expect a lot from your team Harmanpreet said This tournament is very important for us as a team to do well Especially all the teams they are the ones in the last twothree years we have seen massive improvement And whenever we are playing against them they are not giving anything easy to usThis is going to be very challenging but at the same time our experience will help us India had a disappointing T20 World Cup campaign but Harmanpreet believes the experiences gained from past matches will stand the team in good steadAll the experience we have got from the past matches is going to help us and hopefully we will play our best cricket and enjoy cricket here she said Asked about Indias preparation for the hot and humid Dubai conditions Harmanpreet said the team would use its training sessions and the matches preceding their opener to assess the conditions before finalising their combinationWe just reached yesterday Wednesday and havent seen the field yet But tomorrow Friday when we train even a good thing is that two teams are playing before us So we will get to see a lot of things and then understand how the conditions are going to be And then accordingly well make the plan she saidHarmanpreet said packed stands such as those witnessed during Indias womens clash against Pakistan in Dubai in 2024 were a welcome sign for the sport As a cricketer we always want to see packed stadiums Fans are coming and supporting us Hopefully this Asia Cup we have the same packed stadiums she saidHarmanpreet also backed the Indian squad amid questions raised over selection by former captain Anjum Chopra I dont know what youre talking about but I think we have picked the best team and they have given very impressive performances Thats why they are here Im sure that whenever we go to the field well play our best cricket she saidWe want to enjoy the match against IndiaPakistan captain Sana Fatima said they intend to play fearless cricket Sana who became the first Pakistan woman to play in The Hundred for Birmingham Phoenix said We just want to enjoy the match against India on September 5 T20 cricket is such that whoever plays better on the day winsWhenever we play in Dubai we are used to the conditions We have players who can do well in these conditions We have good batters as well hopefully they will express themselves UAE captain Esha Oza said Its about enjoying what you do its not about trying to prove anything to anyone We have trained hard and its about implementing those thingsThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever