Smriti Mandhana bats for a women’s edition of Indian Premier League


Smriti Mandhana bats for a women’s edition of Indian Premier League

Smriti Mandhana

India’s opening batter Smriti Mandhana has expressed her wish for playing in the women’s edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL). She stated that such a competition will help to improve the quality of women’s cricket and prepare more girls to compete at the next level.

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The southpaw has recently come back after a successful stint at the maiden edition of The Hundred women’s competition. While playing for Southern Brave, Mandhana smashed 167 runs in seven innings, averaging 27.83. In this, she also recorded two outstanding 50+ scores.

During a recent chat with ace India spinner Ravichandran Ashwin on his Youtube channel, Mandhana reckoned that the women’s IPL will help in understanding the depth of female participation in Indian cricket. Moreover, Ashwin was also in support of this idea saying that it will be a sure success.

“In women’s cricket, we have not had any competitions or any T20 tournaments, so how can we know if we have any depth or not? I think we have enough for a 5 or 6 team tournament so that we can eventually build towards an 8-team tournament. Until we start, we are not giving any exposure to girls to move to the next level,” Mandhana said.

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“IPL today isn’t the same as it was 10 or 11 years ago” 

The 25-year-old further pointed out that the level of men’s IPL has gone to the next level as the tournament progressed over the years. She signed off while mentioning that women’s cricket will benefit in the same way.

“When the men’s IPL started, there were the same number of states (in the men’s and women’s game) and the quality went higher as they played. The IPL today isn’t the same as it was 10 or 11 years ago. I think it’s the same for women’s cricket. I think we have enough girls in the states to start a 5-6 team tournament at least. We can then gradually build our way to an 8-team tournament,” she further said. 

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