CWG 2022: Mighty Australia first up for Harmanpreet's India

Covid-struck team hopes to erase scars of 2020 T20 WC final lossLeft reeling after two of their players, S Meghna and allrounder Pooja Vastrakar, were struck by Covid-19, India's women's cricket team members face an uphill task when they takes on seven-time ODI world champions and hot favourites Australia in their opening game at Edgbaston on Friday. In an encouraging development, it has emerged that Meghna has recovered and has flown to Birmingham. She was slate to join the squad late on Thursday night, and should be available for the opener. However, Vastrakar is likely to be in quarantine till Saturday. Even if she flies to England on Sunday, she will only be available for India's last league game against Barbados on Wednesday.

Before the tough opener against the Aussies, the current world champions, India skipper Harmanpreet Kaur, in an innovative training drill, was seen practising with a golf club. Explaining why she swapped the bat for a driver, Harmanpreet said on Thursday: "Whenever I go out to bat at the nets, I use a golf club so that I can warm myself up. In T20s, there are times when you need to go and hit from the first ball, so it is important to be fit and that was the whole idea.

"My trainer introduced me to this practice. There are times when you go into a match and need to go big right from the start and that could lead to chances of injury. That was the reason he advised me to train with the golf club before walking out to bat. That helps me for my wrist and shoulder warm-up and by the time I get a chance to bat, it helps me in swinging the bat better."

The captain said that her team was also excited about the much-anticipated clash against Pakistan on Sunday. "When we were growing up, there was a