Indian women’s team vice-captain Smriti Mandhana is mulling over the idea of pulling out of the upcoming Women’s Big Bash League in order to manage her workload and stay fit for international cricket.
Mandhana has been away from home for a while now. In February, she played a bilateral series against New Zealand followed by the ODI World Cup where India were knocked out at the group stage. Then, India bagged the silver medal after losing to Australia at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games (CWG) 2022. After the medal event, she stayed back in England for the second edition of the Hundred. Now, she is playing in the limited-overs series against hosts England.
"I think more than the mental part, it's about managing a little bit of physical part," Mandhana said in a virtual media interaction ahead of the second T20I at County Ground, Derby. "Definitely, I'll be thinking about pulling out of WBBL because I don't want to miss out on playing for India or having any niggles when I play for India because I want to give my 100% when I play international cricket. So definitely, I'll be thinking about playing or pulling out of Big Bash."
The Covid-19 pandemic had a massive impact on women’s cricketers as they did not play for a year. Now, the swashbuckling opener does not have any complaints about her busy schedule.
"I have been on the road for a while now. Post the one-day World Cup, I have been on the road with the domestic and the tournaments you mentioned (the Sri Lanka tour, the Commonwealth Games, the Women's Hundred).
"I just try to tell myself that because of Covid we haven't really played a lot of cricket and we really hoped that we came back and start playing cricket.
"And now, I can't be complaining that we have a lot of cricket on the platter. As a woman player we always wanted this sort of schedule for us.
“I'm really happy to be playing so much cricket and I've had my family over, like my mom is over here and she was here for the Hundred as well. So that also helps to be in a good mindset and the team-mates have been just amazing. It feels like we're a family together.”
