On the big day, can Smriti Mandhana rise and deliver?

Eight months. That's the amount of time Smriti Mandhana was out of the Indian setup owing to injury.

It isn't easy for any player to stay away from action, more so if you are a Women's cricketer in India who doesn't get the chance to play top notch teams on a regular basis.

Mandhana, however, can consider herself lucky. Maybe in other cases, players would have had it tough to get back in the fold immediately after recovering, she, though, didn't have any waiting to do.

When the team for the Women's World Cup was picked, she was there and the confidence of the team on her was evident when she was picked in the first game against England and given her preferred opening slot.

Her comeback performance was evidence of the new breed of Indian cricketers- no nerves, no fear.

Stroking her way, pouncing on a lot of short stuff bowled at her, the left-hander made a match-winning 90 to help India get off to the best possible start in the competition.

If that was thought to be a flash in the pan, she proved that notion wrong by going a step ahead and making a century to lead India to their second straight win over the West Indies.

Mandhana plays a shot en route to a scintillating hundred

Mandhana's runs at the top were proving to be vital for India as it gave the likes of Mithali Raj, Harmanapreet Kaur and others a foundation to come in and play a composed game.

Just when it seemed like India were building a formula in their batting, their plans were sort of dented.

After making 196 runs in the opening two games, Mandhana has managed to conjure a mere 36 runs in the six innings, thereby ensuring the middle order got exposed to the new ball early.

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Four of those dismissals have been caught behind and that could be because of the free-flowing nature of Mandhana's batting.

England would have surely learnt from the opening game and would look to cut out the short stuff and bowl a fuller length and make her drive on Sunday.

Inspiration from past greats

During his time with the Indian Men's team, Gary Kirsten gave Virender Sehwag a piece of advice, which was to take his time in the initial 4-5 overs before unleashing on the bowlers.

If Mandhana could employ the same advice in the final on Sunday, it could prove to be fruitful for her and the team.

In addition to that, Mandhana can take inspiration from past Indian cricketers who have not contributed much ahead of the final, but came good on the big day.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni did it in the 2011 World Cup. Before the final, his highest score in the competition was 34, but on the day when he was needed the most, he took the gamble to come higher in the order and took India home.

In a rain-curtailed affair in the 2013 Champions Trophy final, Virat Kohli got India to a decent score.

Both Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma, prolific run-scorers in the competition up till that point, failed on the day.

From 66 for five, Kohli, who had not had much to do in the event till then, rallied the lower middle-order with him to help India reach 130, which proved to be enough.

Harmanpreet Kaur rose to the occasion in the last game

Much closer to where she is now, Kaur began the World Cup slowly, when she made a mere 53 runs in her first four innings, but both in knockout game against New Zealand and in the semifinal against Australia, she played knocks that mattered.

What could also help her is if she could have a word with Mithali Raj ahead of the final.

A player as experienced as her could just give the right suggestions for a player, heading to play the most important game of her career.

The toss is a factor that is not in either team's hands, but it could help the southpaw if India got to bat first.

The pressure of chasing has in the past done weird things to some of the best players and if that does happen to be the case on Sunday, then Mandhana could find it hard to counter that pressure, if her team are to chase a big score.

Batting first could give her the chance to take some time initially before opening out and scoring freely.

Few get to experience a moment as big as the World Cup final so early in their career and she can surely consider herself immensely lucky to feature on the biggest stage in her maiden appearance.

In what will be the biggest day of her short career so far, Mandhana will have a job to do for her side and if she can rise and deliver, she would have surely done her country proud.