Smriti Mandhana reveals India’s mindset ahead of must-win Australia clash in Women’s World T20

India vice-captain Smriti Mandhana said the team will stick to an aggressive approach when they take on Australia in their must-win Women’s World T20 match on Sunday. With a place in the semi-finals up for grabs, India know that a win over the six-time champions will almost certainly see them through after finding themselves in a tight contest with South Africa. Ahead of the crucial encounter, Mandhana admitted that the Indian batting unit has not been performing as consistently as it would have liked in the tournament so far. “Obviously it’s a big game. We’ve all talked a lot about how we really want to play an aggressive brand of cricket and that’s something we’ll all be doing tomorrow,” she said.Mandhana believes India has narrowed the gap with Australia significantly in the last few years, thanks to increased exposure in franchise cricket and experience in high-pressure matches. She pointed to India’s recent success in Australia and the impact of tournaments such as the Women’s Premier League.“We’ve done well in Australia in the T20 format. We’ll take a lot of confidence from that. With the WPL, I feel the girls are also very well prepared in terms of taking the high-pressure games a bit better than we could before,” she said.“But yes, again I feel the gap has definitely narrowed. With a few of our players playing the Big Bash, the experience is shared and I feel the kind of cricket the Indian team has played in the last four, five years – the gap has narrowed.”

Mandhana opens up on Shafali

The left-handed opener also expressed hope that she and Shafali Verma can give India a good start against Australia after struggling for consistency in recent matches.“We had a very quiet series in England. We were both really pumped to get back to good starts for India because obviously, whenever we lay the foundations, more or less, we are in a good place,” Mandhana said.She also revealed that talks with former Australian opener Matthew Hayden and Sri Lanka legend Kumar Sangakkara helped her improve her batting.“I looked up to Sangakkara and Matthew Hayden a lot. I remember watching their videos even on bad days. So when I saw him (Hayden) commentating, I was really excited,” she said.“We had a good chat and I wanted to know a few things about grip etc. I also told him the chat before the Australia game, I don’t know if you’d like it but he was really sweet and nice. He shared a lot of things that I hope I can apply to my batting.”