'Virat Kohli Is My Favourite...': Smriti Mandhana Reveals The Lessons She Learnt From India Great
An old picture of Virat Kohli and Smriti Mandhana (X.com)
A star from the women's cricket team, Smriti Mandhana, has chosen Virat Kohli as her favourite batter from the Indian men's team. Mandhana, a crucial player for the Women in Blue, has been significant team player.
Currently, the preparations for the Women's T20 World Cup 2024 in the United Arab Emirates, are in full swing. Her agility and ability to anchor the innings and accelerate when needed make her one of the most valued jewels in the team.
In the video shared by Star Sports on its official X handle, Mandhana talked about her interactions with Kohli. She revealed that she had asked Kohli about batting and how he manages her grip, something that changes with every tour for her.
"Virat Kohli is my favourite. I did ask him a lot of things about batting. I really wanted to know what his mindset is, and I have a problem of my grip keeping on changing a bit like after every tour, so I asked him about it. And about the mindset as well. We all ask that," she said.
She also talked about how she learnt that a better mental perspective was the way Kohli handled expectations.
"How do you carry all these expectations because he has so much of expectations and he just said that I don't look at him as expectations. I just do what my team wants, so that was something we have somewhere that in me, but it never comes out. It never comes out in our performances. But after hearing it from him. I thought, I was in a better mindset," she added.
Both Mandhana and Kohli represent Royal Challengers Bengaluru in their respective T20 leagues, the former in the Women's Premier League and Kohli in the Indian Premier League. While Kohli would be seen next in the two-match Test series starting against Bangladesh from September 19.
Meanwhile, the Woman in Blue led by Harmanpreet Kaur and vice-captained by Smriti Mandhana are all geared up for the upcoming ICC tournament scheduled to take place from October 3.
India's Squad For Women's T20 World Cup 2024
Harmanpreet Kaur (C), Smriti Mandhana (VC), Shafali Verma, Deepti Sharma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Richa Ghosh (wk), Yastika Bhatia (wk)*, Pooja Vastrakar, Arundhati Reddy, Renuka Singh Thakur, Dayalan Hemalatha, Asha Sobhana, Radha Yadav, Shreyanka Patil*, Sajana Sajeevan
Travelling Reserves: Uma Chetry (wk), Tanuja Kanwer, Saima Thakor
Non-Travelling Reserves: Raghvi Bist, Priya Mishra
This will be the ninth edition of the tournament, and India are pooled into Group A along with Australia, New Zealand, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.