Good prep for the girls with T20 World Cup one year away - Smriti Mandhana

With one year to go for the Women's T20 World Cup in England, India are set to begin preparations for the tournament with a five-match T20I series in England starting on June 28 (Saturday). India's vice-captain Smriti Mandhana looked forward to the event and felt there would be a chance for the Indian team to get a feel of the conditions.

"I think because we have a T20 World Cup next year around the same time, around the summer of UK, which is again similar conditions, so I'm sure this five T20s will be a good prep for a lot of the girls and for us to also see to the conditions and how they all suit their game too. I think also five T20s is a good amount of cricket in the same conditions just one year before the World Cup," she said.

Mandhana also mentioned that regular Indian captain Harmanpreet Kaur was unwell on the day of the pre-match press conference but partially denied that Harmanpreet wouldn't take part in the match. "I don't think she's not playing, she's just unwell for today, so I'm just here filling up for today," she said.

The visitors are coming off nearly a month of preparation for the England white-ball series which also consists three ODIs after the T20Is. With a number of players including the likes of Kranti Gaud and Sree Charani touring England for the first time, India arrived on English shores a week in advance to finetune their preparations heading into the series. Mandhana felt the preparation was good and ideal leading up to the series.

"It's been a good 25 days of prep, we had batters and bowlers camp at Bangalore at NCA and that was also very targeted and specific, keeping in mind this tour," Mandhana said. "Of course, we came a little earlier here, good eight days of prep, a few good practice matches... we got to know a lot of things about the England conditions, especially [for] a lot of girls, it's their first England tour so it was important for them to come here early and get used to the conditions," she added.

It is without question that T20s have been and continue to be the fastest moving format of the game over the better part of the last two decades. Mandhana admitted that there was always a scope for improvement from the batters in the format with the planning and tactical nuance opposition teams always try to deploy.

"I think [in the] T20 game for me, there's a lot of things which I always feel like there's a lot of scope of improvement for. And not only me, I mean, most of the batters, it's a format which you have to keep improvising and keep improving because the other teams keep getting you, keep planning against the way you bat," she noted.

However, Mandhana didn't get too carried away and went back to the cliched saying that cricket is all about facing one ball at a time. "Of course, coming here, there are a lot of game plans and goals for me as an individual, but yeah, I mean, cricket is all about one ball at a time, so I'll take it as that," she said.

India's pace bowling will be led by Arundathi Reddy this time around with Renuka Singh Thakur, Pooja Vastrakar and Titas Sadhu continuing to remain on the sidelines with injury. Amanjot Kaur, Gaud and Sayali Satghare will share the pace bowling workload with Reddy. Mandhana was excited to see the young pace bowlers bring their rich domestic experience to the fore in the T20s against England.

"[We have] ...A new look pace-bowling unit because unfortunately, there are a few injuries which had happened over the last four to five months, but really exciting, I mean [the] WPL has been good in terms of finding new people and of course, the domestic system as well.

"[With] The amount of matches the girls play nowadays, so all these girls have a rich experience in the domestic format, so I'm really excited to see them. Young talent whenever they come in, it's always very exciting, everyone's been prepping up well, trying to do everything right and what better place than England to come to as a pacer," she concluded.