Smriti Mandhana, among India's finest women's cricketers at the moment, has reiterated the importance of fitness in the female version of our sport. The left-handed opening batswoman has been giving the country quickfire starts at the top of the order for a while now and that is down to extra yards put on gaining strong core muscles and taking extra care of the body.
"We have spoken to (WV) Raman sir (coach) about it. We are having camps in a month’s time where we’ll be working on it. Strike-rate is also linked to fitness in women’s cricket, to hit long sixes, fitness comes into play," Mandhana told CricketNext. "We are working towards improving our strike-rate. Jemimah (Rodrigues) is now hitting 120-130, because of her mindset."
An exceptional Indian women's batter with a strike-rate of 83 in ODIs and 119 in T20 games respectively, Mandhana struck half-centuries in her last five international games before following that up with a 90 in the opening game of the Women’s T20 Challenge for Trailblazers against Supernovas.
Subsequently, she received Women’s International Cricketer of the Year award at the 2019 CEAT International Cricket Awards in Mumbai on Monday (May 13). "Winning the Cricketer of the Year award means a lot to me. It means you work hard for a year and get validation for your performances."
Mandhana, along with Harmanpreet Kaur, has been a regular overseas player in T20 leagues around the world, including Women’s Big Bash League in Australia and Kia Super League in England. The 22-year-old reckons Women's T20 Challenge was the start of India's preparations for the next T20 World Cup down under.
"WIPL was an amazing thing. The last couple of years we have been doing well in One-day format, in T20 format we have been lagging behind. I hope WIPL will help us get the team right before the next year’s World T20 event," she said.
"We need to get the bench strength in place and find players who we feel can perform under pressure. It was a great initiative by the BCCI and hope it is the start of something new and big."
The three-team Women's T20 challenge played during the play-offs week of IPL 2019 was another step in the right direction. The tournament exhibited the depth of female cricketing talent which exists in the country and is a concept filled with wonderful possibilities of a bright future ahead.
"WIPL is just starting off right now. We have just played with three teams while in WBBL we have eight teams. I think when we have similar amount of teams, then we’ll be able to compare it. WIPL is at the starting stage right now. It is amazing exposure for women’s cricket, that’s what we are thinking right now," Mandhana concluded.
