Harmanpreet Kaur and India 'ready' for Bangladesh challenge

The Sher-E-Bangla National Cricket Stadium in Mirpur is going to host a Women's international match for the first time in 11 years as Bangladesh will take on India in the first T20I of the three-match series on Sunday. 

India will start as clear favourites, having won 11 T20Is and losing only two against the hosts but their captain Harmanpreet Kaur expects a tough challenge in Mirpur where the pitch is often slow and spin-friendly. 

"Bangladesh is a good side and they play very good cricket in home conditions. It will be very challenging for us and we are ready for the challenge. We had 2-3 days to prepare ourselves and we prepared ourselves in every dept. we are looking forward to some very positive cricket," she said.

Both the teams have made a lot of changes to their squads. Jahanara Alam failed to make the cut for Bangladesh. All-rounder Salma Khatun, the leading wicket-taker of Bangladesh in T20Is returned to the team along with Marufa Akter and Dilara Akter. Salma was rested for the Sri Lanka series as Bangladesh wanted to expand their pool of players by giving youngsters some game time.

Fargana Hoque Pinky, Lata Mondol, Sharmin Akter Supta and Fariha Trishna were named as stand-by players despite featuring in the recent Sri Lanka series.

India have dropped Radha Yadav and Rajeshwari Gayakwad and called up Rashi Kanojiya, B Anusha and Uma Chetry.

Harmanpreet said the Women's Premier League (WPL) helped a lot of youngsters showcase their talent. "For domestic players, it (Women's Premier League) was a great platform to perform, and whoever got the opportunity did very well...WPL played a very big role for the domestic players. I am very happy that domestic players took this opportunity and did very well," she stated.

Bangladesh have also taken into account the performances of domestic cricket. Batter Shathi Rani got the reward of showing excellent performance in the recently concluded Women's Dhaka Premier League (WDPL).

Shathi was instrumental in helping Rupali Bank Krira Parishad win the WPDL, scoring 254 runs at an average of 50. 80 and a strike-rate of 151.19 in six innings. She made the Emerging Teams Asia Cup squad following her performances as well.

Although Mirpur is known for producing slow, low wickets, Harmanpreet expects the pitch to be batting-friendly especially in T20Is. "In Asian conditions, we usually get a turning track, but here I've heard the wicket is very good. That's what we are expecting, in T20 cricket we look for a good batting track and hopefully tomorrow the pitch will play very well. Hopefully, we will be able to execute whatever we've discussed on the field," she said.