Star India batter Smriti Mandhana opened up on her mindset before the start of the Women’s Asia Cup 2024 and said that she just plays ‘according to the merit of the ball’. In the T20 format, Mandhana has played 136 matches and 131 innings, where she scored 3320 runs at an average of 28.13 and a strike rate of 121.83. The defending champions, India, will kickstart their journey towards a record-extending eighth Asia Cup title when they meet arch-rivals Pakistan at Dambulla on Friday.
Speaking on Star Sports, Mandhana said it is easier to bat in the second inning since a team will get the target, which makes it easier for them to calculate the risk.
“My mindset is just to play according to the merit of the ball. Sometimes you bat first or you bat second. Definitely, when you bat second, you have that score in front of you, and you can calculate your risks, and you can go for it. In the first innings, I feel in T20, it’s a bit of a disadvantage that you don’t know what you have to get to. But I think not to complicate it too much, just play according to the merit of the ball. It’s very simple, just keep it simple. I feel like that,” Mandhana said, according to Star Sports.
Leading up to the Women’s Asia Cup, Team India has enjoyed a lot of on-field sucess, like beating South Africa 3-0 in the ODI series and one-off Test recently in June-July and drawing the three-match T20I series 1-1, with one game washed out due to rain.
Before that, India had a successful tour of Bangladesh, beating them 5-0 in T20Is from April-May.
Between December last year and January, India also hosted Australia for a one-off Test, three ODIs and T20Is each, winning the Test match, but losing the ODI series 0-3 and the T20I series 1-2.
All of these series/tournaments will be crucial for India’s preparations for the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup being held this year from October 3-20 in Bangladesh, where India will be aiming for its first-ever major ICC women’s trophy.
India’s Women’s Asia Cup squad: India: Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Smriti Mandhana (vc), Shafali Verma, Deepti Sharma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Richa Ghosh (wk), Uma Chetry (wk), Pooja Vastrakar, Arundhati Reddy, Renuka Singh Thakur, Dayalan Hemalatha, Asha Sobhana, Radha Yadav, Shreyanka Patil, Sajana Sajeevan. Travelling reserves: Shweta Sehrawat, Saika Ishaque, Tanuja Kanwer, Meghna Singh.
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