India’s newly appointed captain Smriti Mandhana wants to improve the team’s professionalism, power-hitting and fielding while building a strong team culture as India begin a new era with a three-match T20I series against Zimbabwe in Raipur on Friday.India will face Zimbabwe women’s team for the first time in international cricket. The series will also give Mandhana a chance to begin preparing the team for the ICC Women’s Champions Trophy 2027, which will be held in India.“I have a job to do, I have to deliver. I always say this, that though the captain’s name is first on the list, you’re always the last on the list in terms of keeping everyone ahead,” Mandhana said on JioStar’s show ‘Follow the Blues: The Dawn of Captain Smriti’, as quoted by news agency PTI.“I’ve been in the leadership group for a while now, but I definitely had written down a roadmap every time. The first thing which comes to my mind is the professionalism around it and trying to have this team go about things like a well-oiled machine.“Like, taking our training, power-hitting, fielding and professionalism one notch higher. And, of course, setting a culture,” she added.Mandhana, who takes over as captain as India build towards their next major international tournament, said she wants to establish standards that younger players can follow in the future.“You always take up this role to leave it in a way where you set a culture for the team, for the rest of the girls to follow. So, you don’t just do this for the sake of it,” she said.The left-handed batter also spoke about the value of having former captain Harmanpreet Kaur in the dressing room, especially as several young players join the team.“She’s led India, she’s the longest-serving captain, and has been such a great leader. So I’m sure that her experience, especially with a lot of youngsters coming into the team now, and the way she works towards the game, is going to be inspiring for a lot of people,” Mandhana said.“I hope they actually watch her, the way she goes about preparing for the game, and learn and take a lot of things from her.”
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India have six T20I matches, including the three against Zimbabwe and three against South Africa, before the Champions Trophy, in addition to the Women’s Premier League (WPL).Mandhana said the upcoming matches will help India decide how they want to play and which roles suit each player.“It’s going to be extremely important to see what style of cricket you want to play, what brand of cricket you want to play, and who’s fitting where. So yeah, there will be a lot of takeaways from this series as well,” she said.
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