India Women vs England Women 2019: Suresh Raina congratulates Smriti Mandhana for breaking his record
What's the story?
Smriti Mandhana became the youngest captain to lead India in T20 Internationals. Thus, she broke the record of Suresh Raina, who captained the Indian team at the age of 23.
In case you didn't know...
Mandhana has been in prolific form in recent time, and that has earned her captaincy for the T20I series against England. The 22-year-old replaced Harmanpreet Kaur as the new T20I captain. She played her first game as a captain on Monday against England at Guwahati. India lost the first game by 41 runs. The second T20I between them will be played on Thursday.
The young batting champ stated that her batting performance won't impact the additional responsibilities. Here is what she said, as quoted in India Today:
" The preparation won't change because as a vice-captain for the last 2 years I have been attending all the meetings of strategy. I know already what we are going to do before the match when I was not the captain. But I will make extra effort to speak to bowlers,"
"I have been playing under a lot of captains in the last 4-5 years and I have tried to learn everything from them. I don't really like to mix captaincy and batting...as it will complicate me more."
The heart of the matter
Suresh Raina has always been vocal when it comes to appreciating anyone who achieves big in cricket or in any other sport. The former Indian captain took to social media to congratulate Mandhana for breaking his own record, by becoming the youngest captain in T20I to lead team India.
Raina was appointed as the Indian T20I captain for the series against Zimbabwe in 2010. He was 23 years old that time. Thus, he held the record for being the youngest T20I captain in the country, until Mandhana broke it. Raina led India for three T20I games, and India won all three of them.
What's next?
The England women cricket team are currently playing India for the three match T20I series. England won the first game, which means that the Mandhana-led Indian team needs to win the next two games, so that she could start her captaincy career with a series win.