Want to play more Tests, says Smriti Mandhana

Hobart, October 21

The Indian women’s cricket team lost the combined Test, ODI and T20I series to Australia, but star opener Smriti Mandhana feels the team gained quite a lot from the tour of Australia. She believes that the biggest positive was the visiting bowlers’ lion-hearted performance in the multi-format rubber, and expressed the wish to play more Test cricket. Having made her Test debut in 2014, Smriti has played only four Tests so far, and two of them were this year.

India lost the series 5-11 on points after going down in the white-ball leg and drawing the lone Test. “We had a lot of positives. Everyone did well, especially the bowling. It was one department where we were way better than the Aussies which is a huge thing for the Indian team,” Smriti said during an interaction.

“To come to Australia and outplay their bowlers and outplay their pacers was so amazing to watch, the way Jhulan di (Goswami) bowled, Pooja (Vastrakar) bowled and Renuka (Singh) and Shikha di (Pandey) bowled in the T20 format... It was amazing to watch our bowlers dominating the Australian batters, that was the biggest positive,” Smriti added.

The stylish southpaw, who scored 86 in an ODI followed by a majestic 127 in the Test match and 52 in the final T20I, said rain disrupted India’s chances of winning the series. “If results would have gone differently it would have been even better for India. Rain played spoilsport in the Test match and the first T20 which we were in a very good position to win,” she said. — PTI