Former India star Sanjay Manjrekar believes that the pitches at the Women's T20 World Cup 2024 are the reason behind Harmanpreet Kaur and Co's lacklustre batting performances. Both India openers - Smriti Mandhana and Shafali Verma - have struggled in the first two games and their batting show has come under a lot of criticism. While Smriti failed to score in both games, Shafali was able to score 32 off 35 deliveries against Pakistan. Manjrekar said that the lack of pace in the UAE wickets have proved to be a major issue for the India batters and they will have to work on it as the tournament progresses.
"The batting has been slightly disappointing. I feel the fans will be slightly disappointed with the way they have batted. The batting was very bad against New Zealand. The problem is that the pitch in Dubai does not suit Shafali Verma and Smriti Mandhana," Sanjay Manjrekar said on Star Sports.
"Mithali Raj mentioned in the pitch report that it will have spongy bounce, so the ball comes slightly slower. That's not an ideal surface for Shafali Verma and Mandhana because they want pace and score through boundaries. Shafali Verma scored a few runs but she shouldn't think only about fours and sixes in the first five or six overs. This applies to Smriti Mandhana as well," he added.
Meanwhile, Mandhana opened up on the importance of upcoming games in the Women's T20 World Cup 2024 and said that all the games are important to the Women in Blue.
Team India will take on Sri Lanka in their upcoming match of the prestigious tournament on Wednesday at Dubai International Cricket Stadium.
Speaking to Star Sports, Mandhana said that Sri Lanka are a good team in the group but one cannot make errors against Australia.
"As a player all games are important to us, when you come to the world cup you have to give 100 percent in each game, Sri Lanka is a good team in our group. But With Australia you know that you can't make errors and minimize them, and you have to get the best game out on that particular day to get the better of them. So, yeah there is excitement to do that on that day because they are a really good team so to come up against them and beat them," Mandhana was quoted in a release from Star Sports as saying.
(With ANI inputs)