Explosive batswoman Smriti Mandhana became India's youngest T20I captain when she led the Indian women's team against England in the 1st T20I in Guwahati. At 22 years and 229 days, the batting sensation leads the Women in Blue as skipper Harmanpreet Kaur has been ruled out from the three-match series due to injury.
However, it was earlier out-of-favour India batsman Suresh Raina who previously held the record when he was appointed Team India T20I captain at the age of 23 years and 197 days.
Notably, Harmanpreet Kaur was earlier also the youngest to lead the women's T20I side at 23 years and 237 days before Mandhana took charge.
Madhana made a bright start to her captaincy stint as she won the toss and elected to field in the 1st T20I against England in Guwahati. She also brought back Mithali Raj into the playing XI in place of injured Harmanpreet.
Mandhana stressed that she won't mix batting and captaincy together as she finds it too complicating and said that the responsibility as captain won't affect her performance with the bat.
"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," Mandhana said on the eve of the first T20I.
"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."
