Smriti Mandhana can be appointed India captain: WV Raman

Smriti Mandhana, India's flamboyant opening batter in the women's game, could be handed the captaincy role after the upcoming Women's World Cup reckons former head coach WV Raman.

The former coach led India to the T20 World Cup final in Australia last year before being recently replaced by Ramesh Powar.

Smriti Mandhana has evolved into one of India's key players since making her debut in 2013. Under Raman's tutelage, Mandhana also had a stint as captain when India played England in the T20I series in 2019.

While Raman believes that Mandhana has the skillset and smarts to become the captain of the Indian setup, he feels a decision should not be made in a haste. He also suggested that the opening batter should be the ideal successor to the likes of Mithali Raj and Harmanpreet Kaur after the Women's World Cup.

Here's what Raman had to say, during a virtual interaction organised by SONY -

"But this is not the right time for handing over captaincy because of the upcoming World Cup. So just to hold on to whatever is happening in the recent past and perhaps, after the World Cup, regardless of the results, I think the captaincy can be handed over to Smriti Mandhana."

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Captaincy has got nothing to do with age: WV Raman

The former head coach went on to add that Mandhana's age shouldn't be a factor when deciding who should lead the Indian side. At 25, Mandhana has got plenty of experience not only in the Indian setup but also from various franchise leagues all over the world.

"Captaincy has got nothing to do with age but I am convinced that Mandhana can be the captain. She is a good reader of the game and has already played a few years of cricket."

Raman concluded that, with Mandhana emerging as a young captain, it would also be good for the young team and allow the captain to lead for a stretch of some years. He said:

"It can be a good time and giving captaincy to a younger cricketer means they can lead the side for a stretch for some years."

With the likes of Shafali Verma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Yastika Bhatia and Richa Ghosh, there is some exciting talent emerging from the Indian ranks. Mandhana would be the ideal choice to lead this new generation to the highest level in women's cricket.

Often compared to Sourav Ganguly because of her flamboyant batting style, Mandhana will hope to bring a similar kind of impact to her captaincy as well.

After losing the ODI leg of the multi-format series 2-1, Team India drew the pink-ball Test against Australia in which Mandhana smashed a swashbuckling century. The Indian team will now look forward to the three-match T20I leg of the series, which will begin on October 7.