Derby (England) Derby (England) 12 : India vice-captain Smriti Mandhana is contemplating the possibility of pulling out of the Women’s Big Bash League (WBBL) to better manage her workload, and to avoid injuries or niggles, in order to ensure she’s healthy for international obligations.For Mandhana 2022, the season began with the ODI tour of New Zealand in February in the build-up to the ODI World Cup in the same country in March.
The huge occasion was followed by white-ball events in India in India in April and May, before the Indian team played ODIs as well as T20Is in Sri Lanka in June-July.
In the following months in the months of July and August India took part in five T20Is in the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham where they came out with the silver medal and Mandhana has been in the UK since, initially for the Women’s 100 to represent the Southern Brave, who finished as runners-up.
The opener currently plays in the white-ball international tournament against England which began with the T20I series on the 10th of September.She is convinced that managing the physical aspect is crucial considering the amount of cricket.
“I have been traveling for a few days now, post the World Cup.However, I’ve tried to convince me that due to the loss of Covid we wouldn’t be able to play a lot of cricket.We were hoping that we would return and play lots of cricket.I’m not going to complain about the fact that there isn’t lots of cricket on the plate,” Mandhana said in an online press conference held on Monday.
“As women cricketers, we always wanted this kind of schedule for us.But , more than the mental aspect it’s about controlling the physical aspect.I’ll definitely consider getting out of WBBL as I would hate to miss out on participating for India due to of any issues,” she added.
According to the left-handed batter, tournaments such as The Hundred and WBBL have helped England and Australia to increase their bench strength and hope that India could follow suit in the near future.
“The Hundred and the Big Bash are fantastic events for the respective nations, and also for players from overseas.We also learn lots and these tournaments contribute to their strength on the bench.
If something like this happens with Indian cricket, it will greatly help,” she said.
England had a sweeping nine-wicket win over India on Saturday , to lead 1-0 in the three-match T20I series.India’s vice captain expressed her displeasure with the defeat, adding that her team was hoping to be stronger to win the remaining part of the tournament.
“As as a team, we did not play the same style of cricket that we have played in the past few months, so we were very dissatisfied (after losing in the T20I’s first game) However, we accepted it as a bad day and we are aware that we need to return stronger and achieve the high standards we’ve set for us and our team”, said Mandhana.
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