Pooja Vastrakar Confident Ahead of Women's T20 Asia Cup 2024

India's Pooja Vastrakar expressed confidence in her team's preparations for the Women's T20 Asia Cup 2024. Vastrakar, who has impressive stats in both bowling and batting, emphasized the team's focus on not just the Asia Cup but also the upcoming World Cup.

India's Pooja Vastrakar has expressed confidence in her team's readiness for the Women's T20 Asia Cup 2024. With an impressive career in T20 format, Vastrakar has played 66 matches, taken 53 wickets at an economy rate of 6.29, and scored 310 runs at a strike rate of 114.39.

Speaking on Star Sports, Vastrakar emphasized that the defending champions aim to continue their legacy. She highlighted the presence of a young team in the upcoming tournament. The 24-year-old also stated that the team's focus extends to the World Cup.

"This will be my third edition of the Women's Asia Cup. We played very well last year and we were champions. We just have to continue this legacy and win many trophies for the Indian team. Our preparation has been very good. We had a camp in Bangaluru and then we played matches in Chennai against South Africa. As a result, our team is looking different. This is a young team. We are doing our preparations by not only focusing on the Asia Cup, but we are also focusing on the World Cup. We are also focusing on the bilateral series and the Asia Cup. Our main focus is on the World Cup. We want to utilize these preliminary series and tournaments to play the brand of cricket that we play in the World Cup," Vastrakar said, according to Star Sports.

The 15-match tournament will feature full-member teams from Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka, joined by Malaysia, the UAE, Thailand, and Nepal. Pakistan and India are placed in Group A with Nepal and the UAE, while Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Thailand, and Malaysia are in Group B. The top two teams from each group will play in the semi-finals on July 26.

The final is set to be held on July 28 in Dambulla. India's Women's Asia Cup squad: Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Smriti Mandhana (vc), Shafali Verma, Deepti Sharma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Richa Ghosh (wk), Uma Chetry (wk), Pooja Vastrakar, Arundhati Reddy, Renuka Singh Thakur, Dayalan Hemalatha, Asha Sobhana, Radha Yadav, Shreyanka Patil, Sajana Sajeevan. Traveling reserves: Shweta Sehrawat, Saika Ishaque, Tanuja Kanwer, Meghna Singh.

(With inputs from agencies.)