England expose India's bowling weakness ahead of T20 World Cup

Smriti Mandhana said India's failure to bowl enough dot balls cost them the T20I series against England and urged the team to learn from the setback ahead of the Women's T20 World Cup. Harmanpreet Kaur's return to form was a major positive.

Vice-captain Smriti Mandhana pinned India's six-wicket defeat against England in the third T20I to their failure to bowl enough dot balls, and hoped not to repeat the mistake in the upcoming Women's T20 World Cup.

England dented India's build-up for the ICC showpiece, registering a come-from-behind 2-1 win in the three-match series.

"We definitely started extremely well with the ball, (reducing England to) 35 for 3. I wouldn't really take anything away from the partnership they had. I think they played really good cricketing shots," Mandhana said at the post-match press conference.

After an early wobble, England recovered through a 137-run alliance for the fourth wicket between Alice Capsey (82) and Heather Knight (70 not out) to chase down the target of 181.

"In hindsight, we would have been able to build pressure with a few dot balls, but we were not able to do that. We will definitely look at this game in a way where we can do better and not repeat these mistakes in the World Cup coming ahead," she added.

Despite the defeat, the left-handed opener took some positives from the series such as the return to form of skipper Harmanpreet Kaur. Harmanpreet struck a 40-ball 56 to take India to 180 for five.

"She batted amazingly well. Harman, when she is at her best, is a delight to watch. She played all over the ground. It's a really important innings under pressure, especially when we needed that knock to get us to 180+.

"I feel everyone is in good nick. It is a good sign going forward for the World Cup that Jemi, Harman, everyone is looking really beautiful to watch from the outside. Hopefully, I can watch from the non-strikers end," she said.

India will start their World Cup campaign, taking on Pakistan at Birmingham on June 14.

But Mandhana refused to buy into the hype around a cricket match between India and Pakistan, instead the 29-year-old wanted the team to focus on the World Cup in its entirety.

"We did play India-Pakistan at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham (2022) and we had a sell out. Not only India-Pakistan, I just feel we really need to hype up the T20 World Cup. We don't need to hype up only one match. It is already hyped up. I am sure a lot of people are going to come and support us. Hopefully, we can put up a show for them," said Mandhana.