Indian pacers were rattled all over the ground by England batters in the first T20I of three-match series on Sunday as they failed to counterattack the visiting team. The Women-in-Blue suffered a 41-runs loss. However, when asked about this, India’s stand-in T20I skipper Smriti Mandhana said the team did not lack in the fast bowling department.

“I do not think we lack in the fast bowling department. Jhulan di has a lot of experience and it is unfair to expect a pace bowler to come in her second match and do the same thing Jhulan di does for us. I think looking at the pace bowlers, I do not think depth is not there, we just have to give them enough chances and I am sure they will produce match-winning performances,” Smriti Mandhana told media.

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Mandhana opted to bowl first after winning the toss in the first T20I. Put to bat first, England scored 160 runs for the loss of four wickets in their allotted 20 overs and chasing the target Indian batters fell short off the target by 41 runs. Speaking about her decision to bowl first, Mandhana said that she does not regret it.

“I thought the wicket was really nice to bat on and it did not change much. If the wicket is changing in the second innings, then we would think the decision to bowl first was wrong. Only in bowling, I thought we gave 10-15 runs extra, but saying that I thought 160 was gettable but none of the batters were able to stay on the wicket for a longer period,” the Mumbai batter added.

Heaping praises on Radha Yadav, Mandhana said she had developed into a very good T20 bowler.

“I think Radha has done really well for us in the T20 format in the past year, she is young and she gives us more as a batter as well in the middle-order,” Mandhana said.