India will play a “aggressive brand of cricket” against Australia in the crucial Women’s T20 World Cup encounter in London, according to vice-captain Smriti Mandhana on Saturday.
After getting entangled in a two-way tie with South Africa, India must defeat the six-time champions Australians on Sunday to get to the showpiece semifinals.
“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,” PTI quoted Mandhana as saying in the pre-match press conference on Saturday.
Mandhana was quick to acknowledge that, in this tournament, the Indian batting squad hasn’t always been able to bat to their full ability.
“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.
Mandhana stated that during the past four or five years, India’s performances versus the Australians has steadily improved.
“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.”
The 29-year-old also anticipated that she and Shafali Verma, her opening partner, will be able to contribute more as a team against the Australians.
“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.
The graceful left-hander added that she benefited greatly from her recent batting conversations with former Australian opener Matthew Hayden and former Sri Lankan captain Kumar Sangakkara.
“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.
