Table of Contents

NEW DELHI: Harmanpreet Kaur on Wednesday credited the Women’s Premier League and her franchise Mumbai Indians for helping her develop a strong “winning mindset”, something she put to full use while captaining India to the women’s ODI World Cup title.

Harmanpreet, who has led Mumbai Indians to two WPL titles, said her time with the franchise has transformed the way she approaches major tournaments.

‘Winning mindset’ shaped by WPL experience

“I believe wherever I go, I want to think about winning because participation, we have been doing for so many years, I think that doesn't change anything,” Harmanpreet said at a press conference organised by Mumbai Indians here.

“But if you go with a winning mindset and work towards that, that can bring a lot of things to you and to your country. WPL made a lot of changes in me, especially thinking because before that, some limitations were there but when I came here and worked with MI."

Elaborating further on the shift in her outlook, Harmanpreet highlighted the impact of MI’s culture of success.

"MI has been winning IPL title for so many years and that winning mindset came and when I was sitting with them, they were always thinking about what best we can do to beat any team or to win the title.

"That's what has completely changed,” she added.

Domestic pressure helping

Mumbai Indians’ new head coach Lisa Keightley said Indian domestic cricketers are benefiting from high-quality competition, which is now showing in their performances at the international level.

“The Indian international players are getting fantastic competitions to lead into international cricket in World Cups and being put under pressure,” Lisa said.

“And if you're doing that in your domestic competition, it's only going to enhance your performance when you go away and play international cricket. We've seen the result of that through India winning the last 50-over World Cup when they're under pressure in the semi-final to win that match, and then go on and win the final.

“It was big for the country and big for those players like Harman who have played a number of years and had that feeling of winning one of those big tournaments,” she added.

The former Australia cricketer said India’s women’s ODI World Cup triumph was closely linked to the growth of the WPL.

“I think that's a result of WPL in the last three years and we're seeing the reward when they go away to international competitions,” she said.

New role, familiar winning environment at MI

Keightley has taken over as Mumbai Indians head coach in the WPL after Charlotte Edwards stepped down to take charge of the England women’s team.

“It's my first job in Mumbai and I think it's a very special city for me because whenever I get a chance to play here, I always get to see positive results,” she said.

“I am sure this season is also going to be very special. I am really happy that last season and last year turned out to be very good overall for women's cricket. I hope this year also starts the same way.”

She added that preparing the squad mentally will be a key focus ahead of the season opener on January 9.

“The team's pretty settled. We've got a really good core group of players and we'll have really good role clarity going into those matches,” she said.

“I can't see that it would change too much, but the hunger and the passion, the family atmosphere that we create is really important. It's up to myself, Harman and coaching staff to make sure our players feel very supported and backed when they go out to execute their role,” she added.

(With PTI Inputs)