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'She Is In A Really Good Space,' RCB Coach Expects Mandhana To Set The Stage On Fire In WPL

image-lszyzu24Mandhana will lead RCB in WPL 2024 [X.com]

India women’s star top-order batter Smriti Mandhana is all set to lead Royal Challengers Bangalore in the much-awaited second season of the women's Premier League 2024. 

Being one of the greatest Indian batters, Smriti was handed over the responsibility of leading one of the most popular teams in franchise Cricket, Royal Challengers Bangalore.

Ahead of the 2nd match of the WPL 2024 against UP Warriors, RCB head coach Luke Williams discussed the strategies for the tournament under the leadership of Smriti Mandhana. 

Williams believes that Mandhana has lately worked on her skills and is expected to juggle her duties and roles as a cricketer and captain well in the ongoing season.


Luke Williams on Smriti Mandhana’s mindset

Williams recently shed light on Mandhana’s preparations for the upcoming WPL tournament as he tried his best to spend time with the Royal Challengers Bangalore squad members. 

He highlighted how opening an innings is an added pressure on a captain which Smriti has handled really well in the recent practice sessions. He said,

"She’s practising really well. She’s in a really confident and happy space with her cricket and the leadership. Obviously, there’s responsibility with captaining and opening the batting. But she’s got plenty of support from the team with lots of experienced seniors to help her and trying to really separate the two roles. This time Smriti and others have invested time with our players, and our senior players have been fantastic working with our young players.”

While recalling his time with Smriti during the UK franchise cricket league, The Hundred, Williams said,

“I’ve been fortunate to have spent a fair bit of time with Smriti through my involvement at the Southern Brave (the Hundred team) as an assistant coach, and we’ve had lots of conversations around the learnings and experiences from the last (WPL) season, both as a team and as individuals. I think we’ve really taken on board some of those learnings (from the previous year).”

Mandhana not only failed to deliver the desired results as the RCB captain in the inaugural WPL, her batting performances and scores also saw a steep drop throughout the tournament. So, It will be interesting to see how she fares as a batter and a leader in the showpiece event.