‘I batted three times a day’: Harmanpreet on regaining her touch

Harmanpreet Kaur credited three daily batting sessions at home for helping her regain form after a lean patch. She struck an unbeaten 91 against Zimbabwe before scoring 126 in the second ODI, guiding India to a 2-0 series lead there

Vadodara: Three batting sessions a day helped Harmanpreet Kaur rediscover her touch after a prolonged lean patch, with the India batter saying she needs extensive practice to maintain her batting rhythm.

Harmanpreet’s underwhelming run with the bat had been a key talking point, but the 37-year-old roared back to form with a blistering unbeaten 91 off 41 balls in the final T20I against Zimbabwe before carrying that momentum into the ODI series with a match-winning 126 in the second game.

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“I have practised a lot at home. The more you bat, the more confident you get. I batted in the morning, afternoon and evening — three sessions,” she told fellow centurion Deepti Sharma in a video shared by the BCCI.

“I am someone who requires a lot of training. Looking at my age, I like to spend a lot of time on my fitness. More than that, I batted a lot because I felt like batting was lacking a little. The time I spent at home is helping me,” she added.

Harmanpreet walked in after India lost the wickets of captain Smriti Mandhana and Shafali Verma in quick succession in the second ODI here on Sunday.

Rather than allowing the early setbacks to build pressure, she and opener Pratika Rawal (61) settled in and stitched together a 124-run stand. Harmanpreet then added another 153 runs with Deepti, who scored an unbeaten 106.

India went on to win by 121 runs and take an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match series.

“I was talking to Pratika about the wicket, how they are bowling. We were just thinking about how to build the innings. After two early wickets, the batting team is usually under pressure. But neither of us took pressure. We were backing each other’s strengths,” she said.