Lots of emotion attached to it: Mandhana opens up on India-Pakistan rivalry ahead of Women's T20 WC

Ahead of the upcoming Women's T20 World Cup 2024, star India batter Smriti Mandhana opened up on the India-Pakistan rivalry and said that a lot of "emotion attached" to it. Last month, the Indian women's team landed in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as the ICC Women's T20 World Cup starts from October 3 onwards.

India will begin their T20 World Cup campaign against New Zealand on October 4 at Dubai International Stadium. The Women in Blue will take on their arch-rival Pakistan on October 6 at Dubai International Stadium. Speaking to Star Sports, Mandhana said that it is due to the emotions of the fans, which make it an intense clash.

"I think the India-Pakistan rivalry is more about the emotions of the fans than anything else. It's not like the players don't talk to each other; it's the emotions from both nations that make it so intense. For me, every World Cup match is special, and we put the same amount of effort into each game. But there's definitely a lot of emotion attached to the India-Pakistan games," Mandhana was quoted in a release from Star Sports as saying.

When asked about rivalry against Australia, she added that the Women in Blue cannot afford to make a mistake against the Aussies.

"Every game in the World Cup is important, and you have to give your 100 per cent in each one. New Zealand and Sri Lanka are strong teams, but with Australia, you know you can't afford to make mistakes. You have to bring your best game on that particular day to get the better of them. There's always excitement when facing Australia because they're such a good team, and beating them is a great challenge," she added.

In the last edition of the T20 World Cup in 2022, India again came close to making history, storming into the semi-finals. However, Australia proved to be a stumbling block once again in the final four. Last year, Australia defeated South Africa at home by 19 runs to win their sixth title. Meanwhile, India made it to the semifinals, losing to the Aussies by five runs.

Squad: Harmanpreet Kaur (C), Smriti Mandhana (VC), Shafali Verma, Deepti Sharma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Richa Ghosh (WK), Yastika Bhatia (WK), Pooja Vastrakar, Arundhati Reddy, Renuka Singh, Dayalan Hemalatha, Asha Sobhana, Radha Yadav, Shreyanka Patil, Sajana Sajeevan.

Travelling reserves: Uma Chetry (wk), Tanuja Kanwer, Saima Thakor.

Non-Travelling Reserves: Raghvi Bist, Priya Mishra. (ANI)