Image Credit- BCCI
Smriti Mandhana made
the decision to play domestic cricket for Maharashtra in August of last year,
opting out of the WBBL 2023–24, which coincided with the Senior Women’s T20
Trophy. She returned for the local grind as the West Zone captain for the Senior
Women’s Inter-Zonal One Day Trophy after the double home series against
Australia and England, which included two Test matches.
Although Mandhana’s individual results in those contests were excellent—she
averaged about 50 runs and finished in the top 10 in both—that wasn’t her
greatest achievement. Instead, she got to know some of the skill sets of some
Indian domestic players by playing with and against them.
She became aware of
strategies for controlling Yastika Bhatia, S. Sajana, D. Hemalatha, and similar
individuals. She gained knowledge on how to oppose individuals such as SB
Keerthana, Tanuja Kanwar, and Arundhati Reddy. She was aware of the abundance
of talented people in the area who are only waiting for the right chance.
What was the outcome? Following their fourth-place result in the Women’s
Premier League’s first season, Royal Challengers Bangalore are currently very
close to winning the title again. They will play the Delhi Capitals, who have
advanced straight to the championship game for the second year in a row.
Wherever their men’s sides have not gone before, one of these sides will go. A
significant franchise T20 trophy will be theirs.
Throughout this WPL,
Mandhana has changed, especially on the eve of the final. During the trophy
photo shoot with her counterpart Meg Lanning, she couldn’t stop grinning.
Entering the press conference, she sat down beside Lanning in front of the
microphone, looking completely at ease.
The RCB captain experienced a range of emotions during Friday night’s tight
finish in the Eliminator against the Mumbai Indians. She threw back her head
and put her hands on her face when Richa Ghosh missed a stumping opportunity of
Harmanpreet Kaur, and she embraced her teammates warmly after their five-run
victory.
For Mandhana, taking
over as captain of the WPL was a difficult transition. Last season, RCB was
eliminated from the playoff picture after losing their opening five games. This
time, they’ve appeared more dangerous even though they still needed to win their
most recent league game to lock up a spot or risk it being decided by net
run-rate. Lanning has also observed it.
“Whenever we came up against India, we always used to talk about Smriti
and how we could get her out early – because we knew how dangerous she could
be,” Lanning said. “She is a proven match-winner in any conditions.
She’s on her own leadership journey as well, going through ups and downs, and
it sounds like Smriti is really starting to understand the ins and outs of
that, and has done an excellent job with RCB this year.”
On Sunday, Mandhana
will face the biggest test of her captaincy so far, at a time when she is
understanding her game better than she ever has in a match against her idol,
and perhaps the best tactician in the women’s game. This is going to be
fascinating.