Mumbai: Leading the team for the first time and playing Test cricket after a gap of more than two years, India skipper Harmanpreet Kaur gave head coach Amol Muzumdar for his inputs that helped her lead India to a massive 347-run victory against England Women at the DY Patil Stadium Saturday.
Elated after her maiden Test victory in her first match as captain, the 34-year-old player from Punjab said Muzumdar helped her in making some of the crucial decisions regarding batting order and bowling changes.
“He suggested that we should send Shubha Satheesh at No.3 after watching her play in the four-day practice match we played at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) before this series,” said Harmanpreet in the post-match press conference on Saturday.
She said Muzumdar gave some important inputs when they sat down to discuss whether India should bat or declare their second inning on the overnight score on the third morning.
Harmanpreet, who scored 49 and 44 not out in two innings, sharing crucial partnerships that rescued India from difficult positions in both innings, said the idea behind declaring at the overnight score was to utilise the juice in the pitch in the first 40-odd minutes and at least grab 2-3 wickets to put England under pressure.
“Our intention in the first innings was to take the score past 500 but we could not. We thought we would set them a target of 500 but we lost some quick wickets in our second innings yesterday. So, we that it would be best to exploit the first 40 minutes in the morning and put them under pressure,” said Harman.
“The first 40 minutes were very crucial and we thought if we can get 3-4 wickets, that can help us win the game,” Harmanpreet said, claiming that she was not disappointed at missing out on her maiden half-century in her fourth Test since making her debut way back in 2014.
She said she took the call because it suited the team. Personal milestones are less important than team goals for me, she said. “I know I’ll get more chances to score half-centuries and centuries in the future,” Harmanpreet added.
The 34-year-old skipper said all her players performed their roles as per the plans, which allowed India to register a massive victory.
“It Feels great, it shows how we can win the game, everything went to plan and credit goes to every member of the team. Every player — batter or bowler, performed their role,” said the India skipper.
She said the team had worked out their bowling plan before the start of the match and that was the reason she started with a pace-spin combination, with Renuka Singh Thakur and Sneh Rana opening the bowling in both innings. The more experienced pacer Pooja Vastrakar came as the second change and struck three crucial blows for India Saturday in England’s second innings.
“Normally, you have two pacers starting the proceedings but we have always preferred a pace-spin combination. Having batted on this wicket a fairly long period, I had an idea of how it was behaving, which helped me work out my bowling plans,” said Harmanpreet, who had delayed bringing on Deepti Sharma to bowl in the first innings.
“It was a plan to bowl to England like that, we had prepared accordingly. I had batted on that pitch for a fairly long period and therefore knew how it was playing, which helped in making those decisions. All the bowlers bowled well and Pooja was outstanding. Every bowler who got the chance played their role very well,” said the Indian captain.
