Raipur, Oct 16 (IANS) Newly appointed Indian women’s cricket team captain Smriti Mandhana has called the six T20I matches scheduled to take place this year crucial for the team ahead of the inaugural Champions Trophy 2027.

Mandhana has taken over as the captain across the formats from Harmanpreet Kaur as Indian cricket enters a new era. Her first assignment as full-time skipper will be leading the Women in Blue in a three-match T20I series that starts on Friday. With India having three more T20Is scheduled until the January-February Women’s Premier League 2027, Mandhana has called the limited opportunities crucial for the team to identify the style of cricket that they want to play.

“In the T20 format, we have six matches before the Champions Trophy. Of course, before that, the WPL will happen, but as an Indian team, three here and the three against South Africa for us to take it forward.

“So, it’s going to be extremely important to see what style of cricket you want to play, what brand of cricket you want to play, and who’s fitting where. So yeah, there will be a lot of takeaways from this series as well,” Mandhana said, as quoted by JioStar.

Mandhana also reflected on being named the captain of the team, calling it a huge honour, something which she hadn’t thought she would be doing before. “Personally, it’s a huge honour to represent a country where cricket is almost a religion. In a way, you always start playing cricket to play and win matches for India.

“Never thought of leading the team, but again, it’s a big responsibility because when you step into this role, you have a job to do; you have to deliver. I always say this: though the captain’s name is first on the list, you’re always the last on the list in terms of keeping everyone ahead,” she added.

Mandhana also heaped praise on outgoing captain Harmanpreet, who led India for a long time, and highlighted how crucial she would remain in helping the youngsters. “She’s led India, she’s the longest-serving captain, and has been such a great leader. So I’m sure that her experience, especially with a lot of youngsters coming into the team now, and the way she works towards the game, is going to be inspiring for a lot of people.

“And I hope they actually watch her, the way she goes about preparing for the game, and learn and take a lot of things from her. So, it’s going to be extremely important to have her around the youngsters for them to also groom in a way where sometimes it happens a year or two earlier when you watch someone and start learning from them,” she added.

India will be facing Zimbabwe for the first time in international cricket as they have a three-match T20I series scheduled against them followed by a three-match ODI series too. Mandhana looks forward to the challenge, stating how exciting it is to play new teams.

“In the Asia Cup and Asian Games, we played against quite a few new opponents, and it’s always exciting to play new teams. We also learn a lot of things from them in a way because they have a different approach. Because we play cricket almost all year round, sometimes we get very serious about cricket.

“But when you see these teams, they come out and, regardless of the result, they still go out there and enjoy themselves. So that’s something which we always try to learn from them as well. We don’t know a lot of players. We’ve watched a lot of videos of Zimbabwe players, but it’s quite exciting that it’s the first time. And having as many nations playing cricket is very good for the game going forward,” she said.

–IANS

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