'We want to play aggressive brand of cricket against Australia' - Smriti Mandhana ahead of India's must-win clash in Women's T20 World Cup

Smriti Mandhana stated that the Indian team will look to play an aggressive brand of cricket when they lock horns with Australia in a do-or-die clash at the iconic Lord's Cricket Ground in London on Sunday, June 28.

Despite beating Pakistan and the Netherlands comprehensively in their first two matches, India found themselves in a spot of bother after losing to South Africa. Harmanpreet Kaur and Co. defeated Bangladesh by five wickets on Thursday to keep themselves afloat in the marquee event. 

“It’s a big game obviously. We’ve all spoken a lot about how we really want to be playing the aggressive brand of cricket and that’s something which we’ll all look to do tomorrow,” said Mandhana in the pre-match press conference.

While Mandhana admitted that the Indian batters have not always done justice to their potential, she said that everyone is geared up and looking forward to the big game on Sunday.

“We’ve been speaking a lot in the batting meeting about how we really want to go out there and bat with intent. It’s not happened as much as we would have loved to. But having said that, I think everyone in the batting unit is itching to go,” she added.

The vice-captain said that the Indian team has closed their gap with the Women in Yellow in the last four to five years, and the experience of playing high-pressure matches in the Women's Premier League has facilitated an improvement in mindset.

“We did 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 prepped in terms of taking the high pressure games a little better than what we could before. But, yeah, again, I feel the gap has definitely narrowed. With a few of our players playing Big Bash, the experience is being shared and I feel the kind of cricket Indian team has played in the last four, five years — the gap has narrowed down.”

Mandhana said that she and Shafali Verma were looking forward to proving India some quickfire starts during the 12-team tournament, especially after having a quiet campaign against England in the preceding series.

“We had a very quiet series in England. We both were really pumped to get back to giving the good starts for India because, of course, whenever we lay the foundation, more or less, we are in a good place. So I’m really happy with the way she’s striking the ball and I hope that we can switch up our partnership together,” she noted.

He shared a lot of things, which I hope I can apply to my batting: Smriti Mandhana on learning from Matthew Hayden

Mandhana said that her recent conversations with legendary former batters Kumar Sangakkara and Matthew Hayden helped her improve certain aspects of her batting.

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“I have looked up to Sangakkara sir and Matthew Hayden quite a lot. I remember even in my bad days, I would watch their videos. So, when I saw him (Hayden) doing the commentary, I got really excited. We had a good discussion and I wanted to know a few things about the grip etc. I also told him that chatting before an Australian game, I don’t know if you would like to do that, but he was really kind and sweet. He shared a lot of things, which I hope I can apply to my batting,” she said.