A ruthless Indian team would look to reassert its supremacy and aim to win an unprecedented seventh Asia Cup title when it clashes with Sri Lanka in the final on Saturday. The tournament brought to fore India's depth as the younger crop of players has shouldered the burden of taking the team to the final without any tangible contribution from skipper Harmanpreet Kaur and her deputy Smriti Mandhana. Such has been the impact of the Indian team, that skipper Harmanpreet played only four games (81 runs) and in total faced a only 72 balls in those matches. Even Mandhana, who led in three games, skipped one game and didn't need to contribute much. The biggest takeaway from a tournament like this is that Indian team's junior members could react to pressure situations in a perfect manner when they were thrown at the deep end of the pool.
The most heartening aspect was how three 'seasoned' youngsters -- 18 year-old Shafali Verma (161 runs and 3 wickets), 22-year-old Jemimah Rodrigues (215 runs) and 25-year-old Deepti Sharma (94 runs and 13 wickets) put their hands up and carried the team through to the summit clash.
League Stage topped _
— BCCI Women (@BCCIWomen) October 13, 2022
Semi-Final won _#AsiaCup2022 Final, here we come _ _#TeamIndia pic.twitter.com/o9dSUjCsdQ
The only blip in an otherwise flawless campaign was a defeat against arch-rivals Pakistan due to some bizarre planning by coach Ramesh Powar and Harmanpreet.
India won't get a chance to settle scores with Pakistan at least in this edition as Sri Lanka knocked them out in the semifinals.
Shafali Verma, Smriti Mandhana, Chamari Athapaththu, Anushka Sanjeewani (vc), Jemimah Rodrigues, Richa Ghosh Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Deepti Sharma, Renuka Thakur, Kavisha Dilhari, Inoka Ranaweera
Shafali Verma, Smriti Mandhana, Jemimah Rodrigues, Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Richa Ghosh (wk), Pooja Vastrakar, Deepti Sharma, Sneh Rana, Radha Yadav, Renuka Singh, Rajeshwari Gayakwad
Chamari Athapaththu(c), Anushka Sanjeewani(w), Harshitha Madavi, Nilakshi de Silva, Hasini Perera, Oshadi Ranasinghe, Kavisha Dilhari, Malsha Shehani, Sugandika Kumari, Inoka Ranaweera, Achini Kulasuriya
With PTI inputs
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