Left-handed opener Smriti Mandhana on Sunday (March 8) said that the Indian team needs to be left alone after its crushing 85-run defeat at the hands of Australia in the ICC Women's T20 World Cup final.

See Also: Harmanpreet Kaur refuses to blame Shafali Verma for final loss

Unbeaten throughout the tournament, the Women in Blue were completely outplayed in the summit clash. With the ball, India conceded a massive 184/4 in 20 overs and then folded for a paltry 99 in 19.1 overs.

"This is a time to introspect. Failure teaches you a lot more than success. The team needs to be left alone and think of how we can be better in the next few years," Mandhana said after the match.

Smriti believes India are a transformed unit in the shortest format, and she attributed it to head coach WV Raman.

"T20 was never our best format, one-day was definitely the preferred format. Now we're playing each format equally well. That is one thing the coach has helped us with and we've developed massively," she said.

"The youngsters coming in have totally changed the set-up and the best part of the tournament was it was a complete team performance. That's one thing Raman has done -- developing us as a team not just one or two players. Today, it didn't work out but we've grown as a team, not just as one or two players."

Mandhana revealed she told a tearful Shafali Verma to be "really proud" of her performances despite a poor outing in the final.

The 16-year-old Shafali was left dejected after getting out for just 2 and drooping Alyssa Healy (75 off 39 balls) on when she was on 9.

"Shafali and I were standing together when we were receiving our medals. She was in tears. I told her she had to be really proud of the kind of campaign she'd had. When I played my first World Cup at the age of 16, I couldn't hit the ball 20 per cent of what she can hit," Mandhana said.

"She has to be really proud of the way she played, but she was upset with the way she got out. She's thinking already how she can be better. She should be left alone, that's the most I can tell her."

(With PTI inputs)