India women’s team vice-captain Smriti Mandhana is known to be a big-game player and despite her lean patch — she hasn't scored a half-century in the last 10 games (one Test, six T20Is, one tour match and two World Cup warm-up games) — her Sangli-based childhood coach Anant Tambvekar is confident that she will deliver the goods when it matters most. 

Mandhana, who emerged the second top run-getter (434 runs) during India’s ODI World Cup triumph last November, has scored 13, 12 and 37 against South Africa in the three-T20I away series last April. Also, her scores in the recent three T20Is against hosts England were 0, 32 and eight. In the two T20 World Cup warm-up games versus West Indies and England the left-handed opening batter scored 39 and one respectively a few days ago. Coach Tambvekar though is unfazed. "I’m not worried about Smriti’s form. She will perform well in the T20 World Cup. She is a big-match player and she must be waiting to do that [perform]. India play Pakistan first-up and I’m confident that she will play up to her reputation and won't be bogged down by the pressure of expectation," Tambvekar told Sunday mid-day recently.