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To lead the country was always my dream so I feel proud, says Harmanpreet Kaur

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Indian women's latest T20I captain Harmanpreet Kaur has revealed that leading the national team has been a long-standing dream for her and she is proud every time she steps onto the pitch as skipper. Kaur is leading the women’s team in the ongoing tri-nation series versus Australia and England.

Harmanpreet Kaur was first named the captain of the Indian women’s T20I team back in 2012 when regular skippers Mithali Raj and Jhulan Goswami were ruled out of the 2012 Women's Twenty20 Asia Cup final where they defeated Pakistan and were declared Asian Champions. Kaur, most recently, led the Indian team to a historic series win a month ago, as they beat South Africa by a margin of 3-1 in the T20 series to pull off a memorable triumph. 

“Actually I enjoy the captaincy. Whenever I get a responsibility I want to do well. I love playing with the added responsibility. To lead the country was always my dream so I feel proud,” Kaur said in an interview to TOI ahead of her side’s opening game against Australia in T20I tri-series on Thursday.

In June 2016, Kaur became the first Indian cricketer - male or female - to be signed by an overseas T20 franchise. Sydney Thunder, the Women's Big Bash League champions, added Kaur to their roster for the 2016-17 BBL season. Kaur has performed well on the big stage and holds the record for the highest score by an Indian female cricketer in the T20 format.

However, Kaur was highly critical of the Indian team as she suggested that the current women’s team needed to improve their fielding in order to perform well against the Australian and the English teams.

"In T20 format, there are a lot of areas where we need to improve and a big thing where we are lacking is fielding. If you saw the ODI series, we have given a lot of runs because of fielding. In T20 format, it is a short format where we can give our 100 percent and girls are looking confident and hopefully we will do better," Kaur said.

Kaur admitted that their opponents have the edge as they are a more experienced side when it came to the T20 format, but she said that the Indian team will only get better with time.

"No doubt England and Australia players have lot of experience as they have played a lot of the T20 format. Right now, for us as a team, it is a learning process and preparing for the World Cup (in West Indies in November 2018) and day by day we are taking the challenges. Anything we learn takes time (for results). We will try and give our best. We will like to give them a fight," said the 29-year-old from Punjab.

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