"Great achievement": Harmanpreet Kaur lauds Smriti Mandhana ahead of her 50th appearance in T20I

Bristol [UK] July 1 (ANI): Indian skipper Harmanpreet Kaur hailed star opening batter Smriti Mandhana as she is set to feature in her 150th fixture in T20 internationals as India Women take on England Women on Tuesday.

India Women shocked England Women in the first T20I at Trent Bridge, Nottingham, winning by a whopping 97 runs to take a 1-0 lead in the five-match series.

The Women in Blue will look to double their lead when they take on England in the second T20I at the County Ground in Bristol.

In a video posted by BCCI, Harmanpreet Kaur said, "It's a great achievement as a player because when we start playing cricket, we always have a dream to play for the country. The way, you know, she's hitting the ball, I think that is something which is totally different from others, and she has a lot of time when she's batting. She made batting look very easy the way, you know, she was handling England ballers."

In 149 outings in T20 Internationals, Mandhana has slammed 3873 runs at an average of 30.02 and a strike rate of 124.41. She has 30 fifties and a hundred on her name.

Mandhana, who is the No.1 ranked ODI batter, took England to the sword with a superb innings of 112 in Nottingham recently. That helped the left-hander gain one place and move to third on the latest rankings for T20I batters.

Mandhana has also reached a new career-best rating of 771 points and has 23-point gap from No.1 ranked player Beth Mooney among T20I batters.

Smriti also led from the front as she was the captain in the first T20I in the absence of Harmanpreet Kaur.

India Women: Harmanpreet Kaur (C), Smriti Mandhana (VC), Shafali Verma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Richa Ghosh (wk), Yastika Bhatia (wk), Harleen Deol, Deepti Sharma, Sneh Rana, Sree Charani, Shuchi Upadhyay, Amanjot Kaur, Arundhati Reddy, Kranti Gaud, Sayali Satghare. (ANI)

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