London, June 28: India’s journey in the Women’s T20 World Cup 2026 came to an abrupt end on Sunday, as they lost to Australia by six wickets at Lord’s. Following this defeat, captain Harmanpreet Kaur acknowledged the need for the ‘Women in Blue’ to rethink their strategies against top teams.
Thanks to Harmanpreet’s explosive innings of 56 runs off just 26 balls, India set a formidable score of 170/4. However, they failed to defend it. Australia chased down the target in just 19 overs, with key contributions from Ellyse Perry (56) and Ashleigh Gardner (not out 53). India concluded their campaign with six points from five matches, while Australia and South Africa advanced to the semifinals with eight points each.
Despite believing that India had posted a competitive total, Harmanpreet admitted that the team struggled to perform against one of the strongest sides in the tournament.
After the match, she stated, “We set a good score on the board. While batting, I felt we were slightly behind, but we did well in the final overs. They were trying to score runs but couldn’t. Reflecting on the tournament, we didn’t perform well against the top teams. Your best performance always comes against the best teams. We need to rethink this.”
Harmanpreet credited Australia for executing their plans effectively, noting that India failed to capitalize on their wickets. She remarked, “Australia is one of the best teams. They bowled according to their plans. We didn’t lose wickets, but we also didn’t get what we expected. It was a good match, but unfortunately, we couldn’t secure the win.”
She emphasized, “As a team, we need to reconsider many aspects, especially how to play against strong teams. Often, we stay in the match, but in the final overs, we concede too many runs. When chasing a target, we don’t score enough runs while batting. I believe this has been happening for quite some time.”
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