Yuvraj Singh to Indian women’s World Cup team – ‘Sign autographs happily, but cut outside noise with headphones’; Harman, Smriti riff off 2017 inspiration

A batsman, who faced similar situations during the 2011 Men’s World Cup which India won after a gap of 28 years, Yuvraj reckoned that experience could come handy when things are not going too well for Harmanpreet Kaur & Co.

“The fans are always wanting fours and sixes, or wickets. That’s the game. They come to watch. They want entertainment. They want to be entertained. There will be times when things are not going to go well. And that’s the time when the experience, the self-belief, has to take over. The belief that I can be the player in this moment. I think every time you walk in the game, you have to believe that,” Yuvraj said during the ceremony for the ODI World Cup organised by International Cricket Council (ICC).

India will play the first game against Sri Lanka on September 30 at Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru, and proceed to play every team in a round robin format.

He recalled how after India lost to South Africa in 2011 at Nagpur, the backlash in the media had begun, and it was then that Sachin Tendulkar and coach Gary Kirsten, came up with idea of dealing with it. In order to cut this outside noise, the team decided not to watch TV and not to read newspapers.

“Social media wasn’t big that time, right? Now it is. Gary said when you walk through crowds, you’re ok to go and sign signatures but put on your headphones. Go and focus on your field. When you go back to your room, put your headphones back on. Be in that moment, cut the noise, and try and do what you need to do,” he recalled.

Playing at home won’t be easy for the Indian women, but Yuvraj said each player has to carry their belief that ‘I’m the person who makes the difference.’

India has never won a women’s World Cup till date and captain Harmanpreet Kaur wants to break the barrier now.

“We want to break that barrier which all Indians are waiting for. World Cups are always special, I always want to do something special for my country,” Harmanpreet said. The World Cup begins from September 30 at home and Harmanpreet explained that playing against Australia would be most challenging.

Opener Smriti Mandhana says there has been a change in mindset within the Indian dressing room. There has been more exposure for the team than before. The Indian team has been travelling a lot and proper planning is in place.

“The mindset has changed over the last two or three years. There’s a calmness with which I want to go about on the field. Our whole team is heading in that direction. We know where we want to work hard. And when we enter the field, we know we’ve just got to implement,” Mandhana pointed out. Further adding, “That’s been a massive change for the team as well as personally. Whenever we’ve done well (on the field), everything else has taken care of itself. We are preparing really really well. “We’ve had a preparation camp. We’ve had an England tour. We’ve one tour ahead of the World Cup. To be honest, that’s the only thing we are thinking about.”

2017 final, an inflection point

The major difference between 2017 when India last made finals and now is how the Women’s Premier League has made youngsters battle-ready. Middle order lynchpin Jemimah Rodrigues spoke of 22-year-old pacer Kranti Gaud, leading wicket-taker in India’s 2-1 ODI series win in England with nine scalps that included a six-wicket haul. “There’s not as much pressure as on international debut,” Jemimah said. “In this team, we see that. We look at Kranti (Gaud), she’s fearless. That attitude is so nice to see that it pushes each one of us.”

India missed out narrowly to England in 2017, but Harmanpreet’s 171 against Australia in the semi-final is right up there with legendary World Cup knocks. ‘That knock was something really special to me. Special to the entire women’s cricket. After that knock, a lot of things changed for me and women’s cricket,” Kaur added. “That time I didn’t realise (its impact). But when we returned to India, even though we lost the final, the amount of people that were waiting and cheering for us, it was really special.”

Mandhana has been in fine form in the last few seasons, and will hope to go better on her haul of 232 runs, including a century against West Indies from 2017.

“We all remember that World Cup. Not just my century, we remember each other’s innings as well,” she added. “To witness that 171 (from Harmanpreet Kaur). Everyone came together in that World Cup. “Not just the World Cup but what followed. The kind of welcome we got back from the fans. The way things changed after that World Cup.”

Jemimah Rodrigues, still rising up the ranks, recalled going to the airport to receive and support the team, and the fervour as a fan. “I remember all these people, they were tired and at the same time disappointed, because they were so close, and yet it felt so far,” she said. “And they walked out of the airport thinking nobody was going to be there. And I can tell you at 5:30 in the morning, the whole airport was packed with crowd,” she recalled a goosebumps moment.

“People right now would think that that’s normal. But at that time, for women’s sport, it wasn’t. I remember this whole bunch of players coming in and going back, because they weren’t expecting it.”