India's women's cricket team captain Harmanpreet Kaur credited the side's triumph in last year's ODI World Cup on home soil with instilling a newfound sense of self-assurance that they can win multiple titles across global tournaments.
India's maiden ICC title triumph in November, secured with a victory over South Africa in Navi Mumbai, has ingrained the team with the spirit to emulate that triumph at the upcoming Women's T20 World Cup in the UK (June 12 - July 5), with the squad now poised to challenge for a second global championship.
"Look, I believe that in any field, you have to do something special, you have to win a title, only then do you get recognition. Otherwise, it feels like all the hard work goes to waste," Harmanpreet said on the sidelines of the naming ceremony of a stand in her honour at the Omaxe Stadium in Dwarka.
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"Not just our team, but all the women cricketers before us have put in immense effort, often even spending from their own pockets. So, winning a title was very important. And after achieving that, the response we are getting from Indian fans, the media, and everyone else is a very big thing for us,” she added.
Talking about the huge pressures from fans to repeat the accomplishment in this year's T20 World Cup, the captain said: "We'll try our best (to win the T20 World Cup). Last World Cup gave us confidence, and now we have the belief that we can win the World Cup anywhere in the world."
India's recent multi-format tour of Australia, which yielded a 4-12 points defeat, was considered a worthwhile learning experience by captain Harmanpreet.
"Such a multi-format series should happen because it gives you a lot of challenges. After every week, you have to play a different format, so I think this is a totally different experience," she said.
"As cricketers, we have never gone through such an experience. Earlier, we mostly played either T20s or ODIs, but playing all three formats together was a bit challenging,” the India captain said.