'Really excited to play T20 World Cup': India's teenage sensation Shafali Verma

India's prodigy Shafali Verma has said that women's cricket team is well prepared for  Women's T20 World Cup with a heady mix of youth and experience in side, as y get ready to take on hosts Australia in tournament opener in Sydney on Friday.

'We are well-prepared for challenge'

"I am really excited to play in T20 World Cup. team is backed by good experience and we are well-prepared for challenge," said 16-year old batswoman who made her T20 debut last year. Ahead of World Cup opener, India will hope that ir top order of Verma and Smriti Mandhana comes good as ir tweaked middle-order has failed to deliver in recent months. 

Shafali rewrote history when she broke Sachin Tendulkar's 30-year record and became youngest Indian to score a half-century. This, she achieved when she was only 15 years and 285 days, when she hit 73 off 49 against West Indies.

Indian women's cricket team captain Harmanpreet Kaur on Thursday said her side will target consistent collective efforts instead of relying on just a couple of players to deliver when team takes on Australia in T20 World  Cup.  current side's aver is 22.8 and Kaur expects youngsters to make a mark against defending champions, who have clinched trophy four times.

'Need to come up toger'

"If you want to do well as a team, you need to come up toger and do well for side," she said on eve of match. "Through past tournaments, we have learnt that you cant depend on just one or two players to win game for you," she added.

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Indian team's reliance on big-hitting Smriti Mandhana and Kaur to do job with bat has been criticised most recently during tri-series against Australia and England. "If you want to win a big tournament like World Cup, you have to come up as a team and that's what we're looking to do," Kaur said. She furr said that with sprightly teenrs like Jemimah Rodrigues and Shafali Verma in ranks, team is "mentally very fresh".

India have failed to reach final in any of six previous editions of tournament. y reached semifinal two years ago, third time y made it to kckout sts. India is placed in Group A with Australia, New Zealand, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

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(With ncy inputs)