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The India women’s national cricket team is gearing up for one of its biggest matches of the year. They will start their ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2026 campaign with a tough clash against Pakistan and captain Harmanpreet Kaur said they are ready for the big contest.
Ahead of the tournament, India Women were declared the winners of the 2026 Women’s T20 World Cup. Even though they lost their second practice match against England, the India women’s national cricket team is taking positive things from the game. The biggest positive thing for India was Richa Ghosh.
Indian wicketkeeper-batsman Richa Ghosh returned to her form at the right time. He attacked the bowlers from the very beginning and kept India in the match by hitting some excellent shots. Richa scored 68 runs in just 36 balls with the help of nine fours and two sixes and India was all out for 166 runs.
Harmanpreet Kaur saw a big weakness before the clash between India and Pakistan in ICC T20 World Cup 2026.
India’s failure to chase 172 against the England women’s national cricket team highlighted a bigger problem, and that was that they could not build enough partnerships in the middle overs. Harmanpreet Kaur, who recently achieved a rare feat, regretted that her team did not get partnerships in the middle overs due to which they lost the match.
Harmanpreet Kaur said in the post-match presentation: “It’s all about partnerships, and I think we missed the opportunity, and only Richa and a few other players were there to make some partnerships. In T20 cricket, if you want to win, you have to make some partnerships in the middle overs, and today, we missed that. But it was good to see how Richa batted today.”
India ready to take on Pakistan as Harmanpreet Kaur supports fearless cricket
Nevertheless, Harmanpreet Kaur feels the two practice matches have helped her prepare well and given her confidence ahead of their big game against the Pakistan women’s national cricket team in the ICC Women’s T20I World Cup 2026 at Edgbaston, Birmingham on June 14.
The Indian captain further added, “We are really looking forward to that (Pakistan match). These two warm-up games have given us a lot of confidence, and today, even though we lost the game, Richa batted well, and I think that’s a big positive for us. It’s a big belief that if we stay on the ground, we can turn the game around at any time, and I think these two (warm-up) games have given us a lot of confidence, and hopefully We will play fearless cricket in our first game.”
India dominates Pakistan in ICC Women’s T20 World Cup history
India and Pakistan have played against each other eight times in the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup. India has won six of those matches, while Pakistan has managed to win only two.
Pakistan’s last win over India in the tournament was 10 years ago in Delhi, where they won by just two runs. Earlier, they had also defeated India by just one run in the 2012 edition.
But in recent years, India has completely dominated this rivalry. India has registered a spectacular victory in the last three matches of the T20 World Cup against Pakistan.
The two teams last met in the 2024 Women’s T20 World Cup, where India easily chased down the target of 106 and won by six wickets with seven balls to spare.
