India women opener Smriti Mandhana – who has been in blazing form recently – on Friday that coach WV Raman has set her targets to develop her patience at the crease, PTI reported.
“He [Raman] has been telling me to play 30 overs in ODIs as he knows that if I bat till 30 overs, I will continue to bat,” said Mandhana in Mumbai. “And in 20 over games, he has been telling me to bat for 13 overs,” she added.
“He’s giving me targets to bat a certain number of balls, because strike rate and those kinds of things never concern me, the only problem is the patience aspect. He is helping with that and giving me targets to bat through these many balls and that many overs and that is being great.”
Mandhana denied that the team was dependent on her. India frequently suffered batting collapses in New Zealand after the southpaw, along with Jemimah Rodrigues, got them off to good starts.
“No, I don’t think so,” the 22-year-old said. “We have got a lot of match-winners in our team. It is just that sometimes someone goes through a lean patch and you need to cover up for your teammate. And sometimes that would be the case, if I am not among the runs, the middle-order will help me.
“So you can’t say that are too dependent, but I think the main responsibility as a batter is to win matches and dependence never comes [in the way],” she added.
During last year’s T20 tri-series featuring England and Australia, Mandhana had said that she was throwing her wicket away after setting in. Eleven months later, she feels that she is being able to improve 10 per cent on this aspect, but the next aim was to carry on batting till the end of the innings.
“Somewhat, yes, may be 10 per cent I have improved on that. From 50 to 60s, I have gone to 70s. But I’m still leaving 20-30 runs when we are chasing. I think it will be good if I come back not out. Hopefully, I can do that against England in the [upcoming] ODI and the T20 series,” she said.
“I’m really excited [for the England series] and we are playing the ICC Championships and we need six points to be up there. Hopefully we will all stick together and win the ODI series [against England]. I hope that I can win more matches for India.”
India’s series against England starts next Friday and all the three matches in the 50-over rubber will be played at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.
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