Despite England triumph, Harmanpreet urges total reboot

A double series win in England may have boosted the confidence of the Indian women’s team ahead of a home World Cup but skipper Harmanpreet Kaur said her side will need to "start from ball one" when they return home to prepare for the global showpiece.

Harmanpreet led from the front with her seventh women’s ODI century as India defeated England by 13 runs in a high-scoring decider here on Tuesday to clinch the three-match series 2-1, following their 3-2 triumph in the WT20Is earlier.

India next faces seven-time reigning world champions Australia in a three-match WODI series at home beginning September 14, before co-hosting the Women’s World Cup with Sri Lanka from September 30 to November 2.

"Well, every game and every situation is different. Today was a totally different situation and different pitch, different atmosphere. But in home, conditions will be different," Harmanpreet, who was adjudged both player of the match and player of the series, said at the post-match press conference here on Tuesday.

"But yeah, whenever you win, those things can always give you a positive mindset and keep you in a good place.

"But whenever you are playing the next game, it's always you have to start from ball one and I think this series will definitely give us a lot of confidence. But again, when we go back, we have to start again things from the ball one." Asked what pleased her most from the England tour and what areas the team still needs to improve ahead of the World Cup, Harmanpreet replied: "Well, if you see our team is really working hard for so many years and this is the time where we are getting that reward.

"I am really happy all the girls are coming up and coming up with positive mindset and working really hard on their fitness.

"Right now, the kind of fitness you need in international cricket. We have understood a lot of things in the past few years and right now, just trying to pass that benchmark and setting ourselves in that position where people can talk about women's cricket, people can take women's cricket really seriously back home." Asked whether India and Australia now stand a step above the rest in women’s cricket, Harmanpreet preferred to focus on overall growth.

"Well, nowadays women's cricket is improving day by day. All the teams, if you see, they are batting really well. They are improving in bowling also. So I think every team is improving day by day and now it's only about who is going to play best cricket on that particular day.

Harmanpreet’s century was her seventh in ODIs, and also her first score above fifty in the format in 13 innings. Before this, her best in the two white-ball series in England was 26 in the fourth T20I.

Reflecting on ending her lean run with the bat, she said: "Well, obviously in all the matches, I wanted to give my best in batting also. But today's game was very important for us.

"The plan was to spend some time on the wicket and then see how things will go. And I think that thing really worked for me. In the first 11 balls, I didn't get any runs.

"But then I was just talking to myself, I'm not going to lose myself. Just be there for the team and I think those things really helped me." Reaching the 4,000-run milestone in WODIs added another highlight to her day.

"Yeah, it's always a great moment, adding those runs for your country. It means a lot to me and I wish to continue more for the country." The skipper was also full of praise for young seamer Kranti Goud, who grabbed 6/52 to restrict England to 305 and became the second-youngest Indian woman after Deepti Sharma to take a five-wicket haul in ODIs. She gifted her player of the match award to the young seamer.

"She's been really impressive whenever she was on the field and bowling for the team. Today was also, we went with four spinners but we knew that Kranti is someone who can always give us a breakthrough in the initial moment.

"And later on also, she's someone who can bowl really well for the team and really happy with the kind of bowling she did today. And whenever we needed a breakthrough, she was there for the team."