Indian woman cricketer Smriti Mandhana is in exceptional form and has also secured the no.1 position in ICC's women's ODI ranking. Mandhana's form against New Zealand was sublime. ODI series was all about her batting. Support from the bowlers and Mandhana played a couple of outstanding knocks in two ODIs out of three. In T20Is, she fought alone without any companion.
While she murders the bowling attack, Mandhana always has a smile on her face. Talking to Rasesh Mandani of India Today, she said, "When I look at my batting videos, I am always smiling. My teammates tease me and ask why I am always smiling. So often when I meet bowlers from the opposition, off the field, I ask them why they give me such fierce looks when I actually smile at them. They say it's because I keep bashing us. That feels good to hear. It feels good to contribute to victories."
Becoming number 1 is a great achievement for her. Smriti called Jhulan Goswami her inspiration and that is what inspired her to become no.1.
"When Jhulan di (Goswami) became the No.1 bowler in the world, I had read about it in the newspapers. That stuck in my mind and I wanted to become No.1 too. I don't want to be content just getting there. It motivates you to work harder," she said.
Mandhana had a tough phase after a good start of the World Cup 2017. She was told by her coach to try a new batting stance which helped her. "After World Cup 2017, I had six or seven bad innings. That's when I spoke to a lot of my coaches. Tushar Arothe was India's coach then. He told me that I should try an open stance. He had been saying it for a long time but I didn't take it very seriously before. But when you have a lean patch for long that's when you consider acting on advice. The open stance has helped me a lot and the results have followed. I have also strived to make sure that my batting does not take a hit again."
The 22-year-old has become a famous name in T20 cricket all around. After a successful Kia Super League, she has done well in international cricket as well. Seems like adding lofted shots in her arsenal has helped Mandhana.
"When you are chasing 170-180, you can't continue to bat the same way. You have to try and score at a rate you are not used to. It's one thing that I was lacking. And sometimes in T20, you can get caught out playing groundstrokes. So I have tried to take the ariel route with the same well-timed strokes," she said.
"I have been working on them for the past two or three years and now in the last year-year and a half, it's finally paying off.
"It's also the need of the hour in T20's, especially in power play. Pick the gaps and play chip shots too. All these shots were not my strength before."
The question which can't be neglected is India's fragile middle order which has become a headache for India women's team. "What's frustrating as a batter is when you are well into 70's and 80's and you are not able to finish off games. I can't think for other batters but what I and Jemimah always talk is when we are in we should try and win more matches for Team India.
"From the team point of view, there are a lot of things we need to work on, especially in T20 cricket. We have been working on them with our new coach, WV Raman and hopefully, in two-three months we will start getting there.
"We started well in New Zealand with the bowlers doing a good job, especially the spinners did well in New Zealand. Even in T20's, we looked on course in most games until we would lose our way. So there are areas to address and we are working on them. Raman sir has been really good in the last two-three months."
When asked whether she would like to lead India one day, Mandhana said, "I am not someone who thinks too far ahead. At the moment the focus is on winning the ODI and T20 series against England. It's always better to live in today rather than thinking about tomorrow."
(With India Today Inputs)
