The mental aspect of it is something I look forward to working with the younger girls: Sania Mirza

The name of Sania Mirza has evolved into a household persona over the years as she hustled her way through all odds from defying career-threatening injuries to ginormous oppositions in the court to showcase her character of steel. Now the Team Mentor of the Royal Challengers Bangalore Women's team, not only does she come forward as a personality who can entirely change the paradigm of the sport for the RCB women but her towering presence in the dressing room signifies just one moxie that would be shared by all the women in the team and that is to fight till that very end.

Talking about her initial response to being offered the role, Mirza said, “I was a little surprised, but I was really excited. I want to make young girls believe sport can be one of the first career choices for them. I want to help the next generation to believe in themselves no matter how much the odds are against you, you can achieve your goals."

A veteran athlete of two decades, Mirza also shed some light on what she could potentially bring to the table. “The mental aspect of it is something I look forward to working with the younger girls," she said. "I feel I can [help] bring in the mental steadiness, the mental belief, I can talk of the experiences I've had over 20 years of playing. Being the only [Indian] woman doing it for so many years has been lonely, but the pressure has been high, that kind of stuff is something I can truly help with," she added.

Having played professional tennis, Mirza spoke about the commonalities in the pressures that athletes face regardless of the sport. “I believe every athlete thinks the same way. They go through the same kind of pressure. Even though the game is different and there are different points on the field and the court, I think handling pressure situations are almost the same. I think that if you are not handling the pressure, because pressure is a privilege, if you don’t embrace it, you can’t actually excel at it. The biggest of champions in any sport are the ones who play best under pressure. It is not really that they are a better tennis player or a better cricketer. It is just that how they are at that point in time,” she revealed.

Sania Mirza is all set to join up with the RCB Women's team for the inaugural edition of the WPL that is scheduled to begin from the 4th of March 2023 with Women in Red and Gold playing their first fixture of the tournament on the 5th of March.