India will look to dominate rivals in Asia Cup: Harmanpreet

Dambulla (Sri Lanka), Jul 18 (PTI) Seeking to continue their domination over teams in the sub-continent, India captain Harmanpreet Kaur on Thursday said they are using the Women’s Asia Cup as a platform to prepare for the upcoming T20 World Cup.

The continental tournament, to held in the T20 format this year, begins here from Friday with India taking on traditional rivals Pakistan, while the World Cup will be hosted by Bangladesh later this year.

Since the tournament’s inception in 2004, India have ruled the roost, clinching the trophy in all the seven editions (T20Is and ODIs combined).

“This tournament is very important for all of us because we give equal respect to this tournament and want to improve at the Asian as well as at the world level.

“So our focus will remain same as we prepare for the T20 World Cup or any other World Cup. Each and every game is important for us and we will try to give our best,” Harmanpreet said at the captains’ press conference.

“The challenge will be to keep doing the right things which we have done in the past Asia Cups, keep playing the same type of cricket, and keep dominating other teams and enjoy our cricket,” she added.

The Harmanpreet-led side is the team to beat going into this iteration of the Asia Cup.

India are the most successful team in the Women’s Asia Cup T20 with 17 wins in 20 matches. They beat Bangladesh in the final of the last edition in 2022.

India’s record against Pakistan, who they will face in their campaign opener, has also been stellar in the shortest format, with 11 wins against three defeats in 14 matches so far.

“We always enjoy playing against Pakistan but each and every team is important. Whenever we go and play, we always want to play good cricket and we will follow the same method,” Harmanpreet said on the eve of their opener.

Pakistan skipper Nida Dar knows India’s strength and is looking to learn valuable lessons from their neighbours.

“We just wanted to play against India because we had some good experiences and the way they are playing is great. Their approach in T20 is great, we have seen their approach. So this series is very important as at least we can learn from them,” Dar said.

Besides India and Pakistan, other participating teams in this edition of the tournament are hosts Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Nepal, Thailand and United Arab Emirates.