India vice-captain Smriti Mandhana said the team will stick to an aggressive approach when they take on Australia in a must-win Women’s World Cup T20 match on Sunday. With a place at stake in the semi-finals, India know that a win over the six-time champions will surely ensure their qualification after finding themselves in a close race with South Africa.
Speaking ahead of the decider, Mandhana admitted that the Indian batting unit has not performed as consistently as they would have liked in the tournament so far. “It’s obviously a big game. We’ve all talked a lot about how we really want to play an aggressive brand of cricket and that’s something we’ll all be looking to do tomorrow,” she said.Mandhana believes India have significantly closed the gap with Australia over the past few years, thanks to increased exposure in cricket and experience in high-pressure matches. She pointed to India’s recent success in Australia and the impact of tournaments such as the Women’s Super League.“We have done well in the T20 format in Australia. We will take a lot of confidence from that. With the WPL, I feel the girls are also well prepared in terms of handling the high-pressure games a little bit better than we could before,” she said.“But, yes, again, I feel the gap has definitely narrowed. With a few of our players playing Big Bash, the experience is shared and I feel the kind of Indian cricket team has played in the last four-five years – the gap has narrowed.”
Mandhana opens up on Shafali
The left-handed opener also expressed hope that she and Shafali Verma can provide India with a strong start against Australia after struggling for consistency in recent matches.“We had a very quiet series in England. We were both really excited to get back to giving India good starts because, of course, when we lay the foundation, we are in a good place more or less,” Mandhana said.She also revealed that talks with former Australian opener Matthew Hayden and Sri Lankan legend Kumar Sangakkara helped her improve her batting.“I looked up to Mr. Sangakkara and Matthew Hayden a lot. I remember that even on my bad days, I would watch their videos. So, when I saw him (Hayden) doing commentary, I felt very excited,” she said.“We had a good discussion and I wanted to know a few things about grip and such. I also told him that chatting before an Australian match, I don’t know if you want to do that, but he was really nice and kind. He shared a lot of things with me, which I hope I can apply to my hitting.”