Smriti Mandhana on India’s overall skill level as they gear up to face Sri Lanka in a must-win encounter for both teams.
Smriti Mandhana says that the batter at number 3 will be chosen based on the conditions and match situation.
“The wicket condition and ground conditions are a lot different to what we thought when we came here,” Mandhana, India’s vice-captain, said on Tuesday. “It just depends on the match situation, who we are playing. How the wicket is playing, and what score we are chasing as well. I think that also is a big consideration. I wouldn’t say that it was all planned.”
Before India’s opening match of the women’s T20 World Cup, head coach Amol Muzumdar had all but confirmed that skipper Harmanpreet Kaur was the one selected for the crucial role.
After leaving the field due to a neck sprain in India’s previous game, Harmanpreet batted at number three during both the warm-ups and the opening match against New Zealand. However, he has been cleared of any severe injuries. After a sluggish start, India sent in Jemimah Rodrigues to chase 106 runs on Sunday against Pakistan. Harmanpreet was ranked number four. Yastika Bhatia is another player in the squad who could be considered for the position.
“Except the New Zealand match, we haven’t seen any team go over 140 in the whole tournament. 135-140 – be it a day game or a night game. It says a lot about the conditions,” she said, prior to the start of Australia’s game on Tuesday when they made it to 148. “I wouldn’t say it changes massively in terms of the wicket or the conditions, the outfield especially. Yes, the heat is a lot more.
“But yeah, I think [when] we came here. For the first two-three days, we felt a lot hotter, but now I think it’s gotten better. It feels more like Indian conditions now. So it’s not as bad as we thought. Even in the last match, we thought it would be a lot hotter than it was actually when we were playing. I wouldn’t say it changes a lot. Definitely maybe 10 or 15 runs here and there depending on how you bat, but yeah, that’s it.”