India captain Harmanpreet Kaur admits that she felt extra comfortable while starting her Women’s Premier League (WPL) journey with Mumbai Indians, courtesy – Jhulan Goswami.
Fans are used to seeing Harman and Jhulan as teammates, a captain and her most experienced bowler on the field making plans and executing them. But here, the roles have changed. Jhulan is Mumbai Indians’ bowling coach and now she ‘coaches’ Harman instead of sharing the field with her.
But does Harman feel this change in their relationship is weird?
“She never made me feel that she is my coach,” said Harman in an Exclusive conversation with News18.
“My bonding with her is very different. She has always been very open and gives her feedback to me. She was very senior to me and I used to ask her how can I improve my game. She used to help me earlier and even today she helps me the same way. It is an honour to work with her. She has known me from Day 1. She knows how to deal with me,” said Harman.
Harman also mentioned how Jhulan told her fellow coaches about her on-field behaviour so that they could prepare themselves.
“I got some extra comfort in WPL because of her since all the faces were not new to me, I knew some of them before. And when you have people in the team whom you already know, things become a little easier. She can tell the other coaches about my on-field behaviour so that they can also prepare themselves and come and talk to me accordingly. She has been a great support to me in my whole career. It feels nice whenever she is around and she is helping me,” the skipper added.
‘AN HONOR TO WORK WITH CHARLOTTE’
The Mumbai Indian skipper also touched upon her relationship with the team’s Head Coach Charlotte Edwards.
“She (Charlotte) is a very experienced person. She has played a lot of cricket herself so obviously she knows much more about cricket than anyone else. Having her in the dressing and taking experience from her is an honour,” the skipper said.
“She is someone who always keeps us relaxed. Giving clarity to every player is important, and she knows as a player what we go through. She knows what we expect from our coaches. She is doing her job really well and I am sure this year also she will give us what we want and it’s an honour for me to work with her,” she added.
‘BINDAAS BOWLER’
WPL, just like its experienced counterpart IPL, is all about the young domestic players sharing the dressing room with some legends of the game. Saika Ishaque was one such youngster for Mumbai Indians in the inaugural season of the tournament.
Saika, a slow-left-arm bowler from Kolkata, played 10 matches for MI in the first season and took 15 wickets at an economy of 7. She bowled the majority of her overs in the powerplay and that has left a very good impression of her in Harman’s mind, who calls her a ‘bindaas bowler’.
“She is a very bindaas bowler. She is always ready to bowl for the team. She loves to bowl with the new ball, especially in the first 6 overs. Usually, bowlers don’t want to bowl in the powerplay, but she is someone who is always ready to bowl and always looking for wickets,” Harman said.
“This attitude of hers is something I really like about her. When you have a bowler who is ready to take the wickets and give you the breakthroughs whenever you need, it’s always a plus for the team,” the skipper said.
THE OVERSEAS CONTINGENT
WPL brings players from different countries together to play for one franchise. Mumbai Indians, in the second season of WPL, has six overseas players.
The MI skipper considers playing with foreign players as a great opportunity.
“It’s always good to share the dressing room with the overseas player. You can learn so many things from them and specially someone like Nat Sciver and Amelia Kerr and now we have (Shabnam) Ismail in the side. Great opportunity for me to share the dressing room with them and learn from them,” said Harman.
Mumbai Indians will begin their WPL 2024 journey in the inaugural match of the season against Delhi Capitals on 23rd February at the Chinnaswamy stadium in Bangalore.
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