WPL 2024: ‘I’m confident Harmanpreet will be back for next match’, says MI coach Charlotte Edwards

Bengaluru, Feb 29 (IANS) Mumbai Indians head coach Charlotte Edwards said she is confident of captain Harmanpreet Kaur being available for their next WPL match against Royal Challengers Bangalore, to be held on Saturday.
Harmanpreet missed Mumbai’s match against UP Warriorz on Wednesday night due to a niggle as the defending champions lost by seven wickets to face their first defeat of the ongoing competition.Apart from her, speedster Shabnim Ismail also missed Wednesday’s match due to a niggle. “Unfortunately they weren’t available for selection today. Harman (Harmanpreet) should be back on Saturday. We are just waiting on (Shabnim) Ismail. It shouldn’t be too long, but we don’t want to bring her back too early. I am really confident that Harman will be back against RCB,” said Charlotte in the post-match press conference.Asked if dew had a big impact on the game, as UP Warriorz chased down the total with ease, thanks to Kiran Navgire’s 31-ball 57, Charlotte replied in the affirmative. “Potentially, yes. Chasing is a lot easier than setting a target. The wicket looked quite slow when we batted. We did well to get to 160-odd considering that we were 13 in four overs.”“It quickened up and I thought Kiran Navgire played brilliantly tonight and took the game away from us in that period. We never quite recovered and we have to go away now and think about what we need to do when players get aggressive and hit a lot of sixes. It is a good learning for us.”Charlotte was also pleased with wicketkeeper-opener Yastika Bhatia trying to be more aggressive while batting in the power-play. In the first six overs, Mumbai struggled to come to terms with pace of the wicket, till Yastika turned the tables by taking 18 runs off the fifth over against Anjali Sarvani.“What we asked of her last season was to be aggressive and enjoy her