Women’s Asia Cup: Anything less than title will be ‘huge disappointment’ for India from Harmanpreet Kaur

Harmanpreet Kaur leads the team during the second match of the Women’s One Day International series between Australia and India at Bellerive Oval on February 27, 2026 in Hobart, Australia. (Photo/Getty Images) India have won seven of the nine editions of the Women’s Asia Cup played so far across the ODI and T20I formats, making them the most successful team in the history of the tournament.Given the Indian team’s historic dominance in the tournament, former India cricketer and former women’s team coach WV Raman feels that anything less than a title in the upcoming Women’s Asia Cup in 2026 would be a “huge disappointment” for Harmanpreet Kaur’s team.“Pakistan and Sri Lanka will be tough competition for India and let’s not discount Thailand either because they have shown a lot of enthusiasm, they have shown that they have really good talent there and you can’t take them lightly. As far as the Indian team is concerned, I think anything less than a win will be seen as a big disappointment,” Raman said in an exclusive interview with Sportscom, organized by Sony.India lost the 2024 Women’s Asia Cup final to Sri Lanka’s Chamari Athapaththu by eight wickets in Dambulla and Raman said “India can win back the Asia Cup” in Dubai.However, the road ahead for India is not as smooth as it seems. India have been missing two of their fast bowling all-rounders, Amanjot Kaur and Kashvee Gautam, for over five months and faced another setback just ahead of the Asia Cup as Jemimah Rodrigues was also ruled out of the tournament with a hamstring injury.

Pratika Rawal is in the side but where should she bat?

Pratika Rawal has received her first India T20I call-up since Jemimah was ruled out of the tournament and is expected to go straight into the playing XI when India take on Thailand on Sunday. The bigger question, however, is where the right-handed batsman fits into the Indian batting order.“Pratika Rawal has done extremely well in Test cricket. She has done well in ODIs, but we haven’t seen much of her in T20s yet. And the other thing they need to work on is her position in the batting order. So where she bats, she has to try and work out,” said former women’s team coach Raman.Shafali Verma and Smriti Mandhana are most likely not to be separated as the opening pair and Bharti Fulmali and Richa Ghosh could play the role of lower order enforcers. Captain Harmanpreet Kaur bats at four as Jemimah plays at three in T20Is; however, Raman argued that Kaur should instead bat at three in the Asia Cup.“I doubt they will have Pratika Rawal at number three. I would rather imagine that Harmanpreet Kaur herself could bat at number three because she needs to spend a lot of time there at the crease, have more overs available to test the pace of the innings,” WV Raman told TimesofIndia.com, adding: “Whether India will play Pratika at number four is obviously something they will need to use methods to be a big question.” 20 overs that have been allotted to them in the most productive way possible, so it is up to them to try.

Longer rope for Fulmali

Fulmali ended her seven-year exile from international cricket earlier this year when she was selected for the tour of South Africa and was also retained for the T20 World Cup.Among all batsmen to have faced at least 100 balls in the Women’s Premier League (WPL) since 2024, India’s Richa Ghosh (155.05) and Bharti Fulmali (149.76) are second and third in terms of strikeouts.However, India dropped Fulmali from the team after just one innings for the 2026 Women’s T20 World Cup, where the campaign ended in the group stage.The former India cricketer said the Women’s Asia Cup is the ideal tournament to give Fulmala consistent chances.“If they plan on Fulmali becoming an integral part of the batting line-up in the near future or for the next few years, then this is probably as good an opportunity as they will get a chance to give her a lot of chances and see how she does,” WV Raman said.“Fulmali has a reputation for being a big hitter. She was caught in the side about six years ago. Then she was out in the wild again. Then she came back again and then she left and came back. I think it’s something that needs to be looked at very seriously because you’re not doing anyone any favors by giving them only sporadic one chance.”The former women’s team coach also stressed that India should look at the Asia Cup as a tournament to begin preparations for the 2028 Women’s T20 World Cup after their infamous group stage exit in the 2026 World Cup.“They (India) can look at this Asia Cup as a platform from which to start planning for the next T20 World Cup in terms of planning, in terms of working out different combinations, considering different options. So it will be a good thing starting with this Asia Cup, even if you can’t equate a great performance in the T20 World Cup with winning the Asia World Cup, if we get them a win in this Asia Cup, they provide some consolation after probably an unexpected early exiting the T20 World Cup,” noted WV Raman.Tune-In: Watch Women’s Asia Cup 2026 live on Sony Sports Ten 1 SD & HD and Sony LIV.