Renuka Singh aims to bowl "good balls" inspired by Zaheer Khan, as India begins Women's Asia Cup against Pakistan.
New Delhi: Ahead of the Women’s Asia Cup 2024, India bowler Renuka Singh said that she just focuses on bowling a good ball.
Renuka has played 42 T20I matches and picked up 43 wickets at an economy rate of 6.59.
The defending champions, India will kickstart their journey towards a record-extending eighth Asia Cup title when they meet arch-rivals Pakistan at Dambulla on Friday.
Speaking on Star Sports, Renuka talked about her mindset while bowling and said that she just focuses on hitting the ball in a good area.
She also revealed that her inspiration has always been former India bowler Zaheer Khan.
“I just focus on bowling a good ball. I don’t think about the wicket. I just think about hitting the ball in a good area because you get the wicket automatically. I think about how I can bowl my over, and when there are a lot of dot balls, you also get the wickets automatically. My aim is always to hit the ball in a good area. My inspirations have always been Zaheer Khan, and I have followed Zaheer Khan a lot. There is one domestic player, Harpreet. Actually, when I came here for the first time, I saw her bowling. So, I thought, I also want to become like her. She was also a good inswinger. So, when I saw her for the first time, I felt that I have to bowl such good balls,” Renuka was quoted in a release from Star Sports as saying.
Leading to the Women’s Asia Cup, Team India has enjoyed a lot of on-field sucess. The team beat South Africa 3-0 in the ODI series and one-off Test recently in June-July.
India had a successful tour of Bangladesh, beating them 5-0 in T20Is from April-May.
Between December last year and January, India also hosted Australia for a one-off Test, three ODIs and T20Is each, winning the Test match, but losing the ODI series 0-3 and the T20I series 1-2.
All of these series/tournaments will be crucial for India’s preparations for the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup being held this year from October 3-20 in Bangladesh, where India will be aiming for its first-ever major ICC women’s trophy.
India’s Women’s Asia Cup squad: India: 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.
Travelling reserves: Shweta Sehrawat, Saika Ishaque, Tanuja Kanwer, Meghna Singh.
