Focus turns to T20 World Cup as Harmanpreet eyes next goal

India captain Harmanpreet Kaur wants to continue her side's winning formula ahead of next year's ICC Women's T20 World Cup in England and Wales.

Harmanpreeet hasn't featured since she led India to a first ICC Women's Cricket World Cup title on home soil last month and the veteran skipper is set to return to action on Sunday in the opening match of the side's five-game T20I series at home against Sri Lanka.

The series will prove crucial for India as the ramp up their preparations for the next edition of the T20 World Cup that commences in June next year, where Harmanpreeet will be aiming to lead the team to a first title in the shortest format.

India will play five matches in 11 days against Sri Lanka and Harmanpreet is looking forward to getting back into action following a long break after the completion of the 50-over World Cup.

"It was hectic (after the ODI World Cup win), but I want these kinds of schedules after every World Cup, so I don't mind that," Harmanpreet said.

"But yeah, looking forward to this series, we have been waiting for a month when we will go to the field because end of the day we enjoy ourselves on the field.

"So tomorrow, we are going to start our first game, really looking forward to that. It's a very important series for us and hopefully we all give our best shot."

India are likely to provide opportunities to a bulk of different players across the five matches against Sri Lanka, with Harmanpreet revealing she wants to see youngsters Vaishnavi Sharma and G. Kamalini given a chance following their impressive efforts at the ICC Under-19 Women’s Cricket World Cup at the start of the year.

Vaishnavi was the leading wicket-taker at the event with 17 wickets, while Kamalini finished as the third leading run-scorer with 143 runs across seven innings as India claimed the title in Malaysia.

Harmanpreet has been impressed with Vaishnavi and Kamalini and believes the time is right to try and blood some younger players in India's squad with the next edition of the T20 World Cup less than six months away.

"Our end goal is the next T20 World Cup in next six months and before that we want to play a lot of T20 cricket,” Harmanpreet said.

"From tomorrow it's going to start and some new players in the team, it's the right time to give them a fair chance to understand how we have to go in the next World Cup. So yeah, it's a very important series for all of us and we just want to play with free mindset and play how we have been playing T20 cricket from last couple of years."

India squad: Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Smriti Mandhana (vc), Deepti Sharma, Sneh Rana, Jemimah Rodrigues, Shafali Verma, Harleen Deol, Amanjot Kaur, Arundhati Reddy, Kranti Gaud, Renuka Singh, Richa Ghosh (wk), G Kamalini (wk), Sree Charani, Vaishnavi Sharma

Sri Lanka squad: Chamari Athapaththu (c), Hasini Perera, Vishmi Gunaratne, Harshitha Samarawickrama, Nilakshika De Silva, Kavisha Dilhari, Imesha Dulani, Kaushini Nuthyangana, Malsha Shehani, Inoka Ranaweera, Shashini Gimhani, Nimesha Madushani, Kawya Kavindi, Rashmika Sewwandi, Malki Madara

Series schedule:

First T20I: December 21, Visakhapatnam
Second T20I: December 23, Visakhapatnam
Third T20I: December 26, Thiruvananthapuram
Fourth T20I: December 28, Thiruvananthapuram
Fifth T20I: December 30, Thiruvananthapuram