Harmanpreet Kaur has brought an end to India's number three conundrum, which has long been their Achilles heel, in the shortest format of the game. The skipper has decided to bat at number three and bring her experience into play.
Head coach Amol Muzumdar confirmed the latest development in the lead-up to India's tournament opener against New Zealand on Friday, October 4.
"Absolutely. Not just the warm-up games, but we had already decided back in India, in the camps that happened before we set off for the World Cup" Muzumdar was quoted as saying by ESPNcricinfo ahead of the game against the White Ferns. "We had a lovely camp in Bangalore. We had decided there itself. These pre-World Cup matches absolutely stamped that for us.
"Is it a surprise? No. If you can guess, you can go through the scorecards and you will find it."
Harmanpreet batted at the number three slot in both warm-up games. She could just get off the mark against West Indies and aggregated 10 runs before getting out to Ayabonga Khaka in the game against South Africa.
Though Harmanpreet's stats at the number three slot do not make for good viewing, she would love to press the reset button and emerge as a prime contributor in the marquee tournament.
The 35-year-old has played 18 matches at number three and has only managed to score 298 runs with her highest score being 48 which came against South Africa on February 18, 2018, in Johannesburg.
The majority of her success as a batter in T20Is has come while batting at number four. She has amassed 2474 runs in 107 T20Is while batting at four, including nine half-centuries.
The decision comes after Dayalan Hemalatha failed to make the most of her opportunities at number three. Hemalatha had seven innings to make the slot her own but the right-handed batter was unable to notch up a single fifty-plus score.
Her highest at three came against Bangladesh in Sylhet on April 30 when she scored a quickfire 41* off 23 deliveries.
