India women’s team vice-captain Smriti Mandhana on Friday said playing white-ball series in England will serve as ideal preparation for the T20 World Cup next year.
“I think because we have a T20 World Cup next year around the same time, the summer of UK, I’m sure this five T20s will be a good preparation for a lot of the girls, to see to what conditions and how they all suit their game. Five T20s is a good amount of cricket before these conditions,” Mandhana said on the eve of the first game in Nottingham.
The team also went through a camp at the BCCI’s Centre of Excellence before playing warm up games in England. Mandhana felt it would help the new players Kranti Goud and Sree Charani, who are visiting these shores for the first time.
“It’s been a good 25 days of preparation. We had batters and bowlers camp at Bangalore; that was also very targeted and specific, keeping in mind this tour and the World Cup, and of course a few good practice matches. We got to know a lot of things about the England conditions. [For] A lot of girls, it’s their first England tour so it was important for them to come here early and get used to the conditions,” Mandhana said.
Mandhana also praised Shafali Verma, who makes her comeback to the national set up. The opening batter was not included in the squad for the Australia tour in November last year. In the England tour, she has been named in the T20I squad but not in the bunch for the ODIs.
“She’s had an amazing year. After the setback, she went into domestic scored, bucket loads of runs, had an amazing WPL. No one had any doubts about her talent, the way she had come into the Indian team and dominated. She is a world class player, she deserves this comeback and I’m really excited to open with her again,” Mandhana said.
Mandhana reposed faith in India’s pace unit which bears a fresh look due to regulars Renuka Singh Thakur, Pooja Vastrakar and Titas Sadhu sustaining injuries.
“WPL has been good in terms of finding new people and of course, the domestic system as well. The amount of matches the girls play nowadays; all girls have a rich experience in the domestic format. What better place than England to come in as a pacer? So, I’m really excited and looking forward, they’ll take a lot of lessons out of it and I’m sure they’ll do the job for the team,” Mandhana said.
Mandhana, filling in at the press conference for captain Harmanpreet Kaur, who was unwell, assured the skipper will feature in Saturday’s contest.