India vice-captain Smriti Mandhan said the team will stick to an aggressive approach when they take on Australia in their must-win Women’s T20 World Cup clash on Sunday. With a place in the semi-finals at stake, India know that a win over the six-time champions will almost certainly ensure their progress after they find themselves in a tight race with South Africa. Speaking ahead of the crucial encounter, Mandhana admitted that India’s batting line-up has not been as consistent as they would have liked so far in the tournament. “Obviously it’s a big game. We’ve all been talking a lot about how we really want to play an aggressive type of cricket and that’s something we’ll all be looking to do tomorrow,” she said.Mandhana believes that India have closed the gap on Australia significantly in the last few years, thanks to increased exposure in franchise cricket and experience in high-pressure matches. She highlighted India’s recent success in Australia and the impact of tournaments such as the Women’s Premier League.“We’ve done well in the T20 format in Australia. We’ll take a lot of confidence from that. With the WPL, I feel the girls are also very well prepared in terms of handling high-pressure matches 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 the Big Bash, the experience is shared and I feel the way the Indian cricket team has played in the last four, five years – the gap has narrowed.”
Mandhana opens on Shafali
The left-hander also expressed hope that she and Shafali Verma can give India a strong start against Australia after struggling for consistency in the recent matches.“We had a very quiet series in England. We were both really pumped to get back to a good start for India because of course whenever we lay the foundations, more or less, we are in a good place,” Mandhana said.She also revealed that conversations with former Australian player 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 watching their videos even on my bad days. So when I saw him (Hayden) commentating, I got really excited,” she said.“We had a good discussion and I wanted to know a few things about catching etc. I also told him let’s chat before the Australia game, I don’t know if you would like to do that, but he was really nice and sweet. He shared a lot of things, which I hope I can apply to my batting.”
