Indian women’s cricket team led by Mithali Raj will be high on confidence, with their rare double series win over South Africa in the recently concluded ODI and T20I series in the rainbow nation, when they will face Australia for the upcoming three-match One Day International series.

In India’s recent tour to South Africa, Smriti Mandhana was in terrific form. In three-match ODI series, she scored 219 runs with an average of 73.

Ahead of the ODI tournament, Mandhana talked about her batting stance, her favourite shot, people’s expectations, women’s cricket being in limelight and more in a recent interview to bcci.tv.

Here is the video of Smriti Mandhana’s interview:

INTERVIEW: The elegant Indian opener, @mandhana_smriti who has an ODI century in Australia, England and also South Africa is looking forward to the upcoming ODI series in Baroda. She says expectations and the burden of pressure never gets to her.https://t.co/ujh9eYbH25 pic.twitter.com/IhrAB3Uq4Y

— BCCI Women (@BCCIWomen) March 9, 2018

Talking about her batting technique, Smriti Mandhan said, “When we got off after the World Cup, I had to change a bit of my technique and get into open stance because a lot of coaches told me that I am more of an off-side player and told me to watch the ball with both eyes. Because I used to watch with one-and-a-half eyes because of my closed stance. So, I went back to Sangli [her hometown], worked with my coach and tried to come into open stance and it really helped me. That suited my batting. I continued with it and it gave me results.”

When Smriti Mandhana was asked about her favourite shot. She said, “As a batter, you always love playing cover drive. That’s the thing for me also. I just used to play cover drives as a kid. I’d play 200, 300 cover drives. I didn’t like any other shot. But later on, I had to develop all the other shots.”

Talking about people’s expectations and pressure, Mandhana said, “I think people expect from you because you have done good things in the past. I think you should enjoy that pressure and… actually, we play cricket for ourselves, not to show people. I play cricket for myself. And making India win is the real aim. Other things don’t really matter.”

Also Read: INDW vs AUSW, ODI series: Everything you need to know

Mandhana also talked about post-World Cup attention and said, “After the World Cup, we all knew that everyone’s going to watch us. Each team member has put in the hard work to get fit. Not that we didn’t work hard earlier but now we know that people are going to watch us. Everyone is working hard. I have worked hard on my fitness and batting. I am happy with it and hopefully will continue in the same form throughout the year.”

Talking about her cricketing goals, Mandhana said that Women-in-Blue’s goal is to win the World cup.

“One cricketing goal for sure is to win a World Cup. Not one, but many World Cups. This year, we have England and Australia coming in. There are like certain goals for the team. It’s like ICC Champions Trophy. Hopefully we win the matches and I contribute to the team. That’s the main goal. I don’t want to complicate things. I just want to go out and enjoy my batting,” Smriti Mandhan further said.

Talking about women’s cricket getting the limelight, Mandhana said if people are watching them, it will motivate them to do better.

Read More: Mohammed Shami-Jahan saga: Hasin’s ex-husband SK Saifuddin opens up about their divorce

“It’s the right time for women’s cricket to be in the limelight. We did well in the World Cup. If people are watching us, it will motivate us to do better. People watching and appreciating or criticising will help our team. This is the right time for people to watch women’s cricket,” Mandhana said.

“It was a good learning experience for me playing in South Africa for the first time. Started off really well with an 84 and a century. Third match I didn’t score well. That’s something I can look back… When I am scoring runs, I should make all the matches count. Even in T20s, I have got good starts but haven’t converted it. So, these things I have to work on,” Smriti Mandhana concluded.