'She just needs a chance to find her feet' - Ellyse Perry backs Smriti Mandhana amidst RCB's struggles

Smriti Mandhana found her strongest support in the form of her Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) teammate and premier allrounder Ellyse Perry as the Australian giant called for time and patience for the Indian veteran batter in her new role as the RCB skipper in Women's Premier League (WPL). 

Perry spoke amidst criticism of the RCB side at the time when Mandhana hasn't been at her very best with the bat in hand either. The elegant opener had entered the first-ever WPL with great sense of anticipation of a big tournament but has managed scores of only 35, 23, 18 and 4 while RCB has experienced a four-match losing streak. 

Losing four of the eight league stage encounters has almost put RCB out of the next round contention in what is a cut-throat five-team competition and also attracted greater scrutiny towards the popular franchise and its underperforming captain at the top of the order. 

Perry, however, denounced the narrative on the outside and believes more time shall be given to Smriti Mandhana to be able to find her feet as captain and batter in WPL cricket, expecting that with greater experience the Indian cricketer would only get better at her job.

Ellyse Perry comes out in support of struggling Smriti Mandhana 

"Knowing Smriti and how proud and responsible she is for her own game, there’s probably no more pressure on her than what she is putting on herself," Perry was quoted as saying by Indian Express after RCB suffered their fourth consecutive loss, this time against UP Warriorz by 10 wickets on Friday (March 10). 

A six-time T20 World Cup winner with Australia, Perry brought her experience into play when she called for greater sympathy, not criticism, towards Mandhana, anticipating a trajectory wherein her RCB captain would only get better at her job with more matches and experience and ultimately find success. 

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"It’s a ginormous task to come into a brand new competition and play with a group of players that she has never played with before and try and make that all gel in a matter of a couple of days since she joined the group," Perry said. 

"I think she’s a great captain too. She just needs a chance to find her feet in the tournament and she will no doubt. But the bigger picture (is), it’s just going to mean we are going to see an even better version of Smriti after this."

"There’s so much that she has learned from this competition already, both as a captain and as a batter, to make her even better in the future. She’s only a youngster right," she added.