Star India batter Smriti Mandhana opened up on her decision to not bat in India’s Women’s Asia Cup 2024 match against Nepal as well. However, on Tuesday, Mandhana led the Indian team after Harmanpreet Kaur was rested along with all-rounder Pooja Vastrakar. After India won the toss, it was Dayalan Hemalatha, who opened the batting with Shafali Verma. They added 122 runs for the opening wicket and eventually registered a 82-run win in Dambulla. Mandhana, who has been in sublime form across formats, said that she wanted the middle-order batters to get enough time to bat.

“As an opener you don’t get a lot of games where you don’t bat. Much needed game time for all the other batters. The middle order hasn’t batted in the previous games. The conditions were different and it is always good to have game time under your belt. The middle order didn’t get time in the South Africa series as well, so good they could spend some time in the middle,” Smriti Mandhana said in the post-match presentation ceremony.

Smriti Mandhana also spoke about India’s upcoming campaign in the T20 World Cup 2024 in Bangladesh. She also said that preparations for the mega event started after the Women’s Premier League (WPL) 2024 which took place way back in March.

“The preparations started post WPL, there are a lot of fine-tuning to be done, and we have to keep improving, cannot go into a World Cup under prepared,” Smriti Mandhana further added.

However, India are yet to win the trophy, having played the final only once back in 2020 as well. India ended their Asia Cup group matches on top of Group A with six points and a net run rate of +3.615 as well and they have reached the semi-final with ease.