Cricketer Smriti Mandhana throughout interview in Mumbai.
| Photo Credit: Emmanual Yogini
India’s ladies cricketers fell only a step wanting successful their maiden T20 World Cup title in 2020. Ahead of the following version, Smriti Mandhana, the vice-captain, isn’t placing an excessive amount of stress on herself — and her teammates – with a view to deliver again the trophy from South Africa in February.
“I am not a person who is huge on setting targets. I am not someone who says I’ll do this and do that. Let’s hope we can take women’s cricket to a higher level this year,” Smriti advised The Hindu whereas responding to a question on her targets for 2023. “We shall try and do whatever we can to achieve it. Hopefully towards the end of the year, we will have a few trophies and inspire a lot of other girls to play cricket.”
Smriti, the fashionable opener, is coming off one more magnificent 12 months in worldwide cricket, tallying nearly 1,200 runs mixed in ODIs and T20Is. While she was delighted “with my effort and especially with the Commonwealth Games medal”, she performed down the hype surrounding the Women’s Indian Premier League.
Smriti was talking on the sidelines of an occasion to announce her affiliation with Herbalife Nutrition. She careworn that the attention about dietary side has been on the rise in ladies’s cricket.
“In the last four-five years, it’s grown a lot. Earlier cricket was termed as a skill-sport a lot but now with the increased number of games and hectic schedule we have, nutrition has become a vital aspect for fitness,” she mentioned.
“It’ll be one of the most important aspects going forward. Even for me, post my ACL (injury rehab in 2017), I am more aware about my nutrition — how much protein intake I should have and hydration levels, understanding my body better and plan accordingly, besides gym and physical conditioning. If we have to compete at the highest level be the top team in the world, we have to look after ourselves and nutrition is one of the most important parts of it.”
‘Women’s IPL will assist us see higher-pressure conditions’
Smriti Mandhana believes that Women’s IPL will create bench energy for India and assist the ladies see larger stress conditions. The inaugural Women’s IPL season is anticipated to begin from March 3 to 26.
“Women’s IPL is going to be a great tournament in terms of bench strength. What happened to women’s cricket is that a bench strength was created in the same way. Just like Women’s Big Bash and Women’s 100 did for Australia and England respectively in the same way Women’s IPL will help us see higher pressure situations. So, they will be ready when they will play international cricket,” mentioned India vice-captain Smriti Mandhana whereas chatting with ANI.
Women’s Indian Premier League (WIPL) is about to begin as a five-team event subsequent 12 months instantly after the conclusion of the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup on February 26.
The Women’s T20 Challenge, which started as a two-team one-off sport in 2018 earlier than increasing to a three-team exhibition event in 2019 and two additional editions in 2020 and 2022, shall be changed by this competitors.
Though BCCI has not finalised the schedule of the WIPL, it would finish earlier than the lads’s IPL. The males’s IPL is prone to begin in March. It can also be seemingly that WIPL clashes with the first-ever season of the Women’s Pakistan Super League.
Women’s cricket has began getting reputation in India ever for the reason that ladies’s group reached the finals of the 2017 ODI World Cup, the place they misplaced to England. In 2018, BCCI launched the Women’s T20 Challenge, which was initially a one-match occasion. But over time, it was prolonged to a few groups.
The development on the home entrance in ladies’s cricket has been huge, in the course of the eight-year interval between 2014-2022. An additional breakdown additionally listed numbers rising to 129 per cent within the senior ladies’s class and 92 per cent within the under-19 class.
WIPL will be a part of The Hundred, Caribbean Premier League, and Women’s Big Bash League as T20 leagues which have elevated the worldwide reputation of girls’s cricket.
(with inputs from ANI)
