The Indian women’s cricket team is aiming to imbibe the “killing attitude” in their quest for success. Captain Harmanpreet Kaur wants to use that weapon in their Commonwealth Games opener against Australia at Edgbaston on Friday.

The matches will be T20s. India are coming into the tournament on the back of commanding performances in Sri Lanka. But Australia, the ODI World Cup champions, start as favourites in the competition. “Whenever we are training and practising, we are trying to create that environment. We keep talking about that killing attitude, and right now, we are working on that,” Harmanpreet said on Thursday.

“Australia are a good team, but I can only talk about my team. The killing attitude is something we all are working on…” Harmanpreet trained with a golf club at nets a couple of days ago to get into the rhythm. “It was during the warm-up, and whenever I go out to bat at the nets, I use a golf club so that I can warm up. In T20s, it is important to be fit, and that was the whole idea.” Also, she said, practising with the golf club helps her “swing the bat better”.

About Friday’s contest, she said: “The first game is always important because you have to set the tone, and then you can take things accordingly. Other teams are also important and we have plans for them, but we want to take one game at a time, and our focus is on the first game.” The Indian think-tank believes the wicket will help both batters and bowlers. “We trained yesterday (Wednesday) but could not look at the wicket as there were chances of rain. We did get some time at the nets, and I think it would be similar. It was looking like a very nice batting track,” Harmanpreet said.

PV Sindhu (third from right) with members of the badminton contingent and support staff ahead of the opening ceremony of the Birmingham Commonwealth Games on Thursday. Picture courtesy Badminton Association of India

“We expect to get help from the bowlers with the weather and grass on the wicket. It will be favourable for both batters and the bowlers. I think instead of thinking about what is going to happen with the pitch, we should just execute the plans. That will help us.” The team will miss the services of Covid-hit S. Meghana and Pooja Vastrakar for the first match. India face Pakistan in their second match on Sunday.

Match starts: 3.30pm IST, live on Sony Ten 1, Sony Ten 3