Best performers in Women’s T20 Challenge were mostly Indians, says Smriti Mandhana

The Women’s T20 Challenge this year was played under lights and was telecasted live during prime time. It got quite a lot of attention and the crowd was also very supportive. Smriti Mandhana was awarded the Man of the Match for the first game whereas it was the Supernovas and India T20I skipper Harmanpreet Kaur in the finals. Mumbai batsman Jemimah Rodrigues was the Man of the Series. Young and uncapped Indian players stepped up in every match and Mandhana was delighted that Indian players set the stage on fire.

“All the players will be in a similar situation in eight months in the World Cup, playing under lights. (The matches) will help players get used to that in India and with the best of players all over the world, it will give a lot of confidence to all the girls,” she explained.

“All the young players Jemimah, Shafali Verma coming off good, even Radha scoring 10 runs in that last over. This is going to give a lot of confidence to all these youngsters and they will be prepared when they come in and have the same sort of pressure when they play for India,” she expressed.

The Indian team had a mixed run in the T20 format but things have slowly started to change as young hitters have joined the ranks, as pointed out by the southpaw.

Earlier, most of the women’s matches were not telecasted on TV but that has changed since the the World Cup in 2017. Indian fans can now watch big hitters Sophie Devine and Suzie bates because of the T20 tournament. Mandhana feels that these factors have enabled the players to score big in the shortest format.

“In the last one two years almost all the matches we play is live. So whichever girl is coming into the team or wanting to be a cricketer is going to watch those matches and what the scoring rates are and what they need to do if they are to come in the Indian team,” explained the Maharashtra batsman.

Women’s cricket has gained traction as the international matches are broadcasted and even the performance of players has gone up by leap and bounds. Mandhana remarked that it is so because they are now accountable for their mistakes.

“I think it is better that you are answerable to something because if you are not, then you don’t really work that hard. When you know your performances are going to be criticised or accepted well, you put your mind into what you do. So it is a good thing that matches are live and people are following it,” she explained.

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