Quiet Smriti eyes turnaround

MUMBAI: For Smriti Mandhana, the past month in her cricketing life has been of fluctuating fortunes. First, the India batting star hit the jackpot in the Women’s Premier League (WPL) auction. She was then entrusted with the captaincy duties of Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB); incidentally also jersey No 18 — the same as Virat Kohli — and figuratively expected to carry the legacy forward.

But even as the ‘RCB, RCB’ chants rang in Mumbai, her team crashed to one defeat after another. A hat-trick of losses to start the tournament and her contributions with the bat have been middling at best. Watching the captain’s sullen expression in post-match presentations, one couldn’t help but feel that her mind would have been a cocktail of emotions. That’s generally not the picture you associate with the ever-smiling Mandhana.

We have seen this happen before though. You get picked by your team for a lot of money and then the pressure of the price tag gets to you. At that point, you can either ride the wave or be weighed down by it. But, she would much rather be locked in nets, getting her bat swing right than explain defeats, fulfil sponsorship commitments, and do team promo shoots. It’s an occupational hazard that comes with franchise captaincy.

“Smriti so badly wants to win it for this group,” said team-mate Sophie Devine after the loss to Gujarat Giants on Wednesday. “She wants to do well and lead from the front. She’s doing a stellar job. But sometimes as captain, you take it all on your shoulders. We are trying to wrap around her. We have got a lot of captaincy experience. It’s a fine line between not having too much information and voices

Venue: Brabourne Stadium, Mumbai and having people with whom you can bounce ideas.”

RCB’s problems are not onedimensional. Their bowling group has sprayed the ball around the park in battingfriendly conditions — twice conceding more than 200 runs. On the only occasion they got to post a target, the batting group underperformed and were bowled out for 155. In this short league stage with just eight matches, another slip-up could end RCB’s playoff hopes.

“We have to hit the ground running pretty damn quickly. If you have momentum leading into the playoffs, you have a chance. But we have to win the first one before we start thinking too far ahead,” Mike Hesson RCB’s director of cricket told the team website.

Off-spin trouble

While Mandhana the captain attempts to grasp a better understanding of her bowling group, Mandhana the batter is left to solve the off-spin puzzle; fast gaining currency as a favourable match-up against her. She’s got off to quick starts (76 runs, SR 140) in the WPL but all three dismissals have come against offspin.

Each time, the otherwise fluent left-hander failed to clear the circle. When Ashleigh Gardner came to bowl against her on Wednesday — she had dismissed her 6 times previously in T20s, including in the recent World Cup semi-final — one could sense her discomfort. Madhana tried to hit out using her feet but only found the fielder at mid-off.

In the shortest format on flat wickets, the pressure to keep scoring against a weakness can be your undoing. “Maybe, she should try to play out the off-spinner and let someone else take them on,” suggested player and TV pundit Punam Raut in the commentary. Whether swallowing pride is a climb down or just prudent thinking is a call that Mandhana needs to make. Indeed, she has several such judgment calls to make as a batter and captain.

One expects her to learn on the job quickly but given that RCB take on UP Warriorz on Friday, she needs to get her timing right as soon as possible.