India women’s national cricket team vice-captain Smriti Mandhana spoke about the team’s campaign so far in the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2024. She admitted that they have not played a good brand of cricket and stated that they are much better than what they played. They have played in the tournament.

The Indian women’s national cricket team is having a shaky campaign so far in the ongoing Women’s T20 World Cup 2024. They had a strange start to the tournament when they were thrashed by the New Zealand women’s national cricket team in their first game at the Dubai International Cricket. Stadium in Dubai.

The Indian women’s national cricket team was blown away by the Kiwis and lost the game by a margin of 58 runs. They tried their best for 102 runs in pursuit of 160 runs. However, after that, they made a comeback by defeating the Pakistan Women’s National Cricket Team to get their campaign back on track.

But the game against Pakistan didn’t go the way I wanted. They struggled with them once again but managed to win the game by 6 wickets. Now they need to win their remaining matches by a big margin if they want to have a chance of qualifying for the semi-finals of the tournament.

Smriti Mandhana, who failed in both the games, was asked to clarify who will bat at number 3 in the team. But he mentioned that the conditions are very different from what they expected and therefore it will depend on the conditions and the match situation who will bat at 3. Talking to reporters, he explained:

“The condition of the wicket and the ground conditions are very different from what we thought when we came here. It just depends on the match situation, who we are playing against, how the wicket is played and also what score we are chasing. I think that is also a great consideration. I wouldn’t say it was all planned.”

“Except for the New Zealand match, we haven’t seen any team go over 140 in the entire tournament – 135-140 – whether it’s a day or night match. It says a lot about the conditions. I wouldn’t say it changes massively in terms of the terrain. or the conditions, especially in the gardens. Yes, the heat is much higher. said Smriti Mandhana.

Ahead of the tournament, head coach Amol Muzumdar confirmed that Harmanpreet Kaur will bat at 3. Skipper came out to bat at that position in the first game, but it was Jemimah Rodrigues who batted at 3 against Pakistan.

We will not shy away from taking that responsibility – Smriti Mandhana

Smriti Mandhana admitted that the first match against New Zealand did not go as expected but they will not shy away from taking responsibility. She said they had a bad day because they did everything but couldn’t get over the line. She added:

“I’m sure the first match didn’t go as we had planned. But, having said that, we won’t shy away from taking responsibility for not stepping up to play some good cricket on that particular day.”

“As a batting order, as a bowling unit, I think we couldn’t do it. We had that one bad day where sometimes you just come and want to do everything but you’re not able to cross the line.

I am sure we are still better than what we have been playing – Smriti Mandhana

Smriti Mandhana admitted that they have not played their best cricket in the first two matches but they have confidence in them. He added that in UAE conditions, it is necessary to play smart cricket. She added:

“But yes, I think the type of cricket we want to play, I would say in the first match we couldn’t do it. Even in the second match, I wouldn’t say we played 100% of our cricket. I’m sure we are still better than what we’ve been playing.

“In these conditions, you have to understand cricket very well, be very intelligent and know what shots to play and what shots to play. So I don’t see any difference between Asian teams and other teams,” concluded Smriti Mandhana.