'Have grown massively since T20 World Cup' - Smriti Mandhana feels COVID-enforced break helped the team improve

Indian women’s cricket team is all set to battle it out against Australia for a multi-format series. The last time the two teams faced each other was in the women’s T20 World Cup 2020 final at the MCG. Recounting the mega event, India’s star batter Smriti Mandhana has stated that the team has improved massively since the World T20 final loss to Australia last year.

After the T20 World Cup final, the women’s team wasn’t seen in action for a long time. Recently, the team traveled to England for multi-format series in June and July. Mandhana feels that the Covid-enforced break in playing cricket enabled the players to work on themselves and arm their talents better. She added that the team has worked on their skills and fitness and is slowly getting into the rhythm of playing the game.

“The team has grown massively (since the T20 World Cup). COVID was a big break after the T20 World Cup and a lot of girls had a chance to go back and understand more about their games, where they lack as an individual and come back stronger. The whole team has worked on their fitness and skills…we are still getting into a rhythm of playing matches continuously but the last five, six months we have been playing cricket and now we are getting back into the match mindset. Hopefully, the series goes well for the whole team,” Mandhana told ‘The Scoop podcast’.

We all love playing against Australia: Smriti Mandhana

Smriti Mandhana is the only Indian woman to hit a century in Australia. She played impressive innings of 102 at Blundstone Arena in 2016 when she was just 19 years old.

India and Australia are scheduled to play three ODIs, the day-night Test, and three T20Is against each other. The pink ball Test is staged from September 30 to October 3 in Canberra. Mandhana said playing against Meg Lanning-led Australian side is always competitive and that the team enjoys batting on the tracks Down Under owing to the extra bounce they offer.

“We all love playing against Australia because they are one of the best teams in the world and quite competitive. When it comes to Australia, you’re a bit more pumped because of the level of competitiveness of the Australian team, it just rubs off on us and we also start being extra competitive. Australian wickets have a true bounce and I think everyone loves batting in Australia. No one will tell you they don’t like batting in Australia,” Mandhana added.