Indian team wants to be consistent: Mandhana
Indian women’s team wants to consistently stay at the top and dominate world cricket, said vice-captain SmritiMandhana. Riding high on their maiden 50-over World Cup triumph, the Women in Blue have now set their sights on winning the T20 World Cup later this year. They began the year with a T20 series win against Australia, their first series triumph over the formidable rivals in a decade.
“This Indian team is something that we have spoken about is trying to be consistent. Don’t think about opposition or what’s happened in the past. So we’ve beaten this, we’ve beaten that. I feel that’s not very important now,” Mandhana said on BCCI.tv. “I think we are on the verge of a transition where we want to dominate world cricket. And whoever we beat, wherever we beat, that doesn’t matter. We just want to be consistent in beating them and being at the top,” she added.
In the series-deciding third T20, Mandhana played a match-setting 82 and, alongside Jemimah, who contributed 59, forged a 121-run partnership that propelled India to 176 for 6 before the bowlers stifled Australia for 159 for 9. “I mean, I really loved Adelaide as a city, even before playing here. And yeah, it’s just very peaceful, nice. I mean, a few Aussies will be very happy when I say that it’s the best city in Australia, and actually, I find it the best city in Australia.”
The women’s T20 World Cup is slated to be held in England and Wales from June 12 to July 5. “This year is a T20 year. Last year was a one-day year where we played a lot of one-day cricket. “So coming into this year, for sure, I feel like we are a well-settled ODI squad, but we are still working on our T20 game and also what’s our best XI and what’s our best 15 in terms of T20s. For sure, WPL has played a huge role for us to get better at T20s,” she added.
