India captain Harmanpreet Kaur on Thursday said her team is not singling out any opponent in the Women’s T20 Asia Cup and will instead focus on playing good cricket, while expecting a challenging tournament with the standard of Asian teams improving rapidly.
Sri Lanka enters this edition as the defending champion amongst a field which includes India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, host UAE, Thailand, Hong Kong China, and Indonesia.
The ODI world champion India enters the Asia Cup bearing the ‘favourites’ tag but Harmanpreet didn’t pay much heed to the hype surrounding her team’s much-anticipated clash against Pakistan on September 5.
“We are not putting any focus on one particular team, which is going to be tough for us. All the teams have been doing well and our focus is to play good cricket and not to take any team easily,” Harmanpreet said at the captains’ press conference ahead of the tournament, which begins in Dubai on Friday.
“Our main focus is just playing cricket, other than giving focus to the other impact of the game.
“Asia Cup is a platform where you can really test yourself and put yourself under a lot of pressure to perform at a level which you expect a lot from your team,” she added.
“This tournament is very important for us as a team to do well. Especially all the teams, they are the ones in the last two-three years we have seen massive improvement. And whenever we are playing against them, they are not giving anything easy to us.
ALSO READ | Women’s Asia Cup 2026 preview: Can anyone stop India from reclaiming the title?
“This is going to be very challenging, but at the same time, our experience will help us,” the 37-year-old said.
At this year’s T20 World Cup, India failed to make it out of the group stage. However, the skipper believed the experience gained from those outings in England will help the team at the Asia Cup.
Harmanpreet also backed the Indian squad amid questions raised over selection by former captain Anjum Chopra.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, but I think we have picked the best team and they have given very impressive performances. That’s why they are here. I’m sure that whenever we go to the field, we’ll play our best cricket,” she said.
Harmanpreet was also asked whether she would shake hands with her Pakistani counterpart Fatima Sana, but didn’t answer.
“We want to enjoy the match against India”
Meanwhile, Pakistan captain Sana Fatima said it wanted to play “fearless cricket”.
Sana, who became the first Pakistan woman to play in The Hundred for Birmingham Phoenix, said, “We just want to enjoy the match against India on September 5. T20 cricket is such that whoever plays better on the day wins.”
“Whenever we play in Dubai, we are used to the conditions. We have players who can do well in these conditions. We have good batters as well; hopefully, they will express themselves.”
UAE captain Esha Oza said, “It’s about enjoying what you do, it’s not about trying to prove anything to anyone. We have trained hard, and it’s about implementing those things.”
(With PTI inputs)
Published on Aug 27, 2026