The Indian skipper Harmanpreet Kaur has backed the decision of appointment of Hrishikesh Kanitkar as the women's team batting coach.
The 48-year-old will oversee the side during the upcoming T20I home series against Australia. Kanitkar has been given the job after the BCCI moved Ramesh Powar to the National Cricket Academy (NCA) as men's spin-bowling coach as part of a "restructuring module", marking an end to Powar's second stint as head coach with the women's side.
Speaking on the eve of the first T20I against Australia in Mumbai, Harmanpreet said:
"I have always enjoyed working with Ramesh sir and we have grown as a team under him and learnt a lot. It's a BCCI decision to move him to NCA and have him work as spin-bowling coach."
She added:
"Hrishi sir is there with us and we had a very good experience with him in Sri Lanka. He brings in a lot of experience and we are only looking forward. We are in right hands."
Harmanpreet Kaur believes Hrishikesh Kanitkar will bring calmness to the squad
Kaur lauded the newly appointed batting coach for the calmness he brings to the side and said there should be no problems for the team in adjusting with him.
"[Hrishikesh Kanitkar] is calm and we needed someone who can give us the calmness on the field. We have seen in the past, sometimes in crucial situation, girls need support of some calm figure who can guide them through their thoughts. Having experienced it all in Sri Lanka, when we came to know he would be around for the Australia series, there was a lot of positivity in the team."
Hrishikesh Kanitkar, was recently with the India men's side on their tour of New Zealand and worked in an interim capacity with the Indian eves in Sri Lanka as a batting consultant. Indian women team won that T20I series 2-1 and blanked the hosts 3-0 in the ODIs.
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