India vice-captain Smriti Mandhana believes the team has valuable lessons to take from its T20I series defeat against England and insisted the players must quickly regroup ahead of the upcoming Women’s T20 World Cup, starting June 12.
Smriti Mandhana (PC: X)
India vice-captain Smriti Mandhana believes the team has valuable lessons to take from its T20I series defeat against England and insisted the players must quickly regroup ahead of the upcoming Women’s T20 World Cup, starting June 12.
India started the series strongly with a win in the opening match, powered by impressive performances from Jemimah Rodrigues and Nandini Sharma. However, consecutive defeats in the next two games saw England clinch the series 2-1.
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Despite the setback, Mandhana felt the tour had served an important purpose by helping the team adapt to English conditions before the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup in the country.
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“Coming in early, and playing a series in England, where we’ve a World Cup to play, in terms of preparations, it’s extremely good to do that. But thinking back, both me and Shafali (Varma) have a huge role to play forward,” Mandhana said.
India’s opening pair has struggled for consistency in the series, scoring a combined 75 runs across the three matches. Mandhana acknowledged that she along with her opening partner Shafali Varma needed to take greater responsibility.
“We both are timing the ball well but unfortunately are not able to contribute in big ways for the team. But yeah again for both of us, we’ll go back in the nets and keep working hard and make sure that we come back better as an opening pair because both of us pride ourselves to give good starts and keep the momentum going. We’ll take it in our stride and work hard,” the seasoned batter said.
Reflecting on the third T20I defeat, Mandhana said momentum can shift rapidly in the shortest format and credited England for their recovery after a difficult start.
“In T20 games momentum keeps shifting. We started really well with the ball, putting them at 35/3 [38/3], but then I wouldn’t take anything away from the partnership they had.”
She was referring to the match-winning 137-run stand between England’s Heather Knight and Alice Capsey, which helped the hosts chase down 181 with nine balls to spare.
“I think they played really good cricketing shots, they played all around the ground,” she said.
The 29-year-old also felt India’s bowlers would benefit from reviewing their plans after the series.
“On bowling, we’ll go to the drawing board, and see which options are better. We did that before this series, maybe we can go back again. Now I think I know in these conditions what balls are to be bowled.”
One major positive for India was captain Harmanpreet Kaur’s unbeaten 56, which helped the visitors recover from early setbacks and post a competitive total.
“Harman when she’s at her best, it’s a sight to watch. Really important innings under pressure, especially when we needed that sort of knock to get us to 180-plus,” said the left-handed opener.
Mandhana also highlighted the encouraging form of India’s batting unit ahead of the World Cup.
“Really happy but I just feel that everyone is in a good nick, and it’s a good sign going into the T20 World Cup that Jemi (Rodrigues), Harman everyone are really looking beautiful to watch from the outside. Hopefully, I can watch them from the inside as well.”
Looking ahead to India’s World Cup opener against Pakistan on June 14 in Birmingham, Mandhana said the tournament was already generating significant excitement and expected strong crowds throughout the event.
“We did play Pakistan in Birmingham, and it was a sell-out. Not just India-Pakistan, we really need to hype up the T20 World Cup. In fact, it’s already hyped up. I’m sure a lot of people will come and watch us play. Hopefully we can put up a good show for them,” the star batter said.
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