Nottingham, June 29 (UNI) Standing in as captain for the injured Harmanpreet Kaur, Smriti Mandhana led from the front in style, scoring her maiden T20I century in the first match against England at Nottingham. Her brilliant 112 helped India to a commanding 97-run victory.

While it marked a significant personal milestone, Mandhana admitted that T20Is don’t come naturally to her due to her preference for timing over power-hitting.

"It's a nice feeling because, of course, this format is something which, for me as a batter, I need to keep pushing and keep improving.

"It's not a very natural format for me because I like to time the ball, not a big hitter of the ball, and for the last six years, it's always a work in progress and it's still a work in progress."

The 28-year-old expressed her desire to build on this knock and notch up more big scores in the format.

"So, to actually get a hundred in this format, of course, getting it before in Test cricket and One Day cricket which are more suited to my batting [was significant as well], but getting it in this format is pretty special because it's not one of my strengths. I mean, the improvement and I'm trying to work a lot on my power hitting and to see that come through, which is a really nice feeling."

The captain threw her support behind opening partner Shafali Verma, expressing confidence that runs would soon follow for the young batter. Shafali returned to the Indian setup after being left out in late 2024, but her comeback got off to a mixed start as she struggled for fluency, managing 20 off 22 balls.

"I've seen Shafali bat in the last seven-eight days, [she did] amazingly well in the nets," Mandhana said.

"So I don't see a big knock is too far because of the way she's been hitting the ball. Sometimes coming back into the Indian team and coming into the first match, of course, there are a different kind of nerves. I'm sure this match is going to take those nerves away for her.

Mandhana learned she would be captaining in the first T20I just two hours before the match, after regular skipper Harmanpreet Kaur was ruled out due to a head knock sustained in Wednesday’s warm-up game. Despite the late call-up, Mandhana assured that captaincy doesn’t affect her batting.

"As a batter, it doesn't change a lot. You don't think that you are captaining and you bat differently. Whenever you have the bat in hand, you have to do the job for the team regardless of the position you are in, so I'm really happy that I could contribute today."

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