Smriti Mandhana Teaches Heather Knight Hindi For Better Communication While Running

An interesting friendship is brewing between England women's cricket team's captain Heather Knight and India's T20I vice-captain Smriti Mandhana in the on-going Women's Cricket Super League in England. Playing for Western Storm, Heather and Smriti strung together an 80-run match-winning partnership for the second wicket against Yorkshire Diamonds to open their title defence in style on July 22. Not only did they help their team to beat the opposition by seven wickets, Heather also got a Hindi lesson from her teammate Smriti.

July 2017: Opponents at #WWC17
July 2018: Match-winning partners for @WesternStormKSL!

Look what happened when @Heatherknight55 and @mandhana_smriti combined!

https://t.co/SMVtXNamfX pic.twitter.com/QtVg1Jd27i

— ICC (@ICC) July 23, 2018

In a post-match chat with the International Cricket Council (ICC), Heather revealed Smriti taught her to call for a run in Hindi as the latter was struggling to call in English.

"She was struggling to call in English, so I asked her to tell me what 'yes' was in Hindi," ICC quoted Heather as saying.

Smriti, who scored a fluent 48 off 20 balls, also said that since it was a bit hard for her to call for a run in English, she taught Heather to call for in Hindi.

"I've always played against her (Knight), so playing alongside her was fun. It was a bit hard for me to call out in English, because we are used to calling out in Hindi, so I was telling her 'haan' is yes. So, she was like, 'Don't worry, I'll run for that'!", Smriti said.

Talking more about the Hindi lesson that she got from Smriti, Heather said, "I'm not sure I'll be wanting to do it (learn a new language) every week," she laughed, "but if I can learn 'yes' and 'no' in Hindi and help Smriti bat there in the middle - because she got off to a great start for us - then that's great!"

However, with the ICC Women's ICC T20 World Cup hovering around the corner, the World Cup winning captain said that she is keeping an eye on the Indian opener's game.

"It's one of the great things about T20 (leagues)," she said.

"You get to play with different people from around the world and work out how they play their cricket. They'll get a better look at you and vice versa," she further added.

Smriti agreed with her Western Storm teammate as well, "It makes us a better player. Learning from experiences we'll all grow together," she remarked.