India vice-captain Smriti Mandhana has said the team will stick to an aggressive approach when they take on Australia in their must-win Women’s T20 World Cup clash on Sunday. With a place in the semi-finals at stake, India know that a victory over the six-time champions will almost certainly secure their progression after finding themselves in a tight race with South Africa. Speaking ahead of the crucial encounter, Mandhana admitted that India’s batting unit has not performed as consistently as they would have liked in the tournament so far. “It’s a big game obviously. We’ve all spoken a lot about how we really want to be playing the aggressive brand of cricket and that’s something which we’ll all look to do tomorrow,” she said.Mandhana believes India have significantly reduced the gap with Australia over the last few years, thanks to increased exposure in franchise cricket and experience in high-pressure matches. She pointed to India’s recent success in Australia and the impact of tournaments such as the Women’s Premier League.“We did well in the T20 format in Australia. We’ll take a lot of confidence from that. With the WPL, I feel the girls are also very well prepped in terms of taking the high pressure games a little better than what we could before,” she said.“But, yeah, again, I feel the gap has definitely narrowed. With a few of our players playing Big Bash, the experience is being shared and I feel the kind of cricket Indian team has played in the last four, five years — the gap has narrowed down.”

Mandhana opens up on Shafali

The left-handed opener also expressed hope that she and Shafali Verma can provide India with a strong start against Australia after struggling for consistency in recent matches.“We had a very quiet series in England. We both were really pumped to get back to giving the good starts for India because, of course, whenever we lay the foundation, more or less, we are in a good place,” Mandhana said.She also revealed that conversations with former Australia opener Matthew Hayden and Sri Lanka legend Kumar Sangakkara have helped her improve her batting.“I have looked up to Sangakkara sir and Matthew Hayden quite a lot. I remember even in my bad days, I would watch their videos. So, when I saw him (Hayden) doing the commentary, I got really excited,” she said.“We had a good discussion and I wanted to know a few things about the grip etc. I also told him that chatting before an Australian game, I don’t know if you would like to do that, but he was really kind and sweet. He shared a lot of things, which I hope I can apply to my batting.”