Aiming for glory: Muzumdar will be banking on Harmanpreet’s experience to come to the fore.
| Photo Credit: EMMANUAL YOGINI

She has been the torch-bearer of India’s transition onto the big stage – combining textbook batting with power-hitting – for a decade and a half.

Come next week, Harmanpreet Kaur will join a band of Super Six to have featured in each of the nine ICC Women’s T20 World Cup editions.

While Harmanpreet will be the only Indian to have achieved the feat, others in the club will include Suzie Bates (New Zealand), Sophie Devine (England), Marizanne Kapp (South Africa), Ellyse Perry (Australia) and Chamari Athapaththu (Sri Lanka).

More than being proud of being the only Indian woman – and second India cricketer – to have achieved the feat, Harmanpreet is focused on using all her experience to help fulfil her dream of lifting an elusive ICC trophy.

“I have played so many World Cups and that experience and atmosphere is totally different to any other tournament,” Harmanpreet, the India captain, said before the squad departed for the United Arab Emirates late on Tuesday.

“I am going with the same excitement as I had when I was just a 19-year-old. I just want to go there and enjoy myself. I know now I have so much experience with me.”

In fact, there is no dearth of experience in Harmanpreet’s team that has set out to attain glory. Only three cricketers from India’s 15-member squad are yet to feature in a T20 World Cup.

Harmanpreet’s form, though, has been wobbly of late. Perhaps it’s got to do with her decision to push herself slightly down the order in recent games. The captain has managed to notch up just two fifties since the last T20 World Cup. Her T20I numbers since then include 368 runs from 17 innings (22 matches) at a strike rate of 116.

But Harmanpreet is not at all concerned with her form. “I know what the pressure is like and how I am going to handle it. (It is about playing) with full freedom and just not thinking about the result.”

The only Indian man to have featured in every T20 World Cup so far – Rohit Sharma – did change a lot of things and lifted the trophy as captain in June. Will Harmanpreet repeat the feat next month?