Veteran India leg-spinner Poonam Yadav has backed the Smriti Mandhana-led side to win the Women's Champions Trophy — to be hosted at home next year — provided the team continues to learn and build on its performances the way it did during a commanding nine-wicket thrashing of Zimbabwe in the second T20 International.

India's dominant second T20I win

Played at the Shaheed Veer Narayan Singh International Stadium on Sunday, the second T20I saw India chase down 103 runs in just 8.5 overs, an emphatic improvement over the series opener. The result gave India an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match series against Zimbabwe.

In the first game, India had a batting meltdown before eventually completing a chase of 115 with four wickets in hand. The correction was swift and decisive in the second match. Captain Smriti Mandhana, who had fallen for just nine in the opener, roared back with an unbeaten 47 off 25 balls. Her deputy Shafali Verma was equally destructive, smashing 55 off 24 deliveries. The pair stitched together a 96-run opening stand that sealed the game at a canter.

What Poonam Yadav said

Speaking on JioStar, Poonam praised the team's ability to self-correct between matches. 'This dominating and commanding victory of India in this second T20I against Zimbabwe shows that they did their homework in the right manner. They made a lot of mistakes in the first match of the series and that was okay because these players were playing for the first time against Zimbabwe and they were not really familiar with their bowlers,' she said.

'But coming into the second match of this series, it was important for the Indian team to learn from their mistakes and they did exactly that. They didn't repeat the mistakes and that is the sign of a team being led by a good captain,' Poonam added.

She went a step further in projecting India's potential on the global stage: 'She used her feet well, utilised the depth of the crease and forged an excellent partnership with Shafali. If India keeps improving like this game after game, then I see no reason why they cannot go on to win the Champions Trophy next year.'

Mandhana and Shafali: The pillars of India's batting

Poonam described the opening duo as the backbone of Indian batting, highlighting their rare combination of timing and power. 'Smriti Mandhana and Shafali Verma have become the pillars of Indian batting. A good batting pair in T20 Internationals have the ability to score not just through power, but also through timing. These two do exactly that,' she said.

She added that both openers showed hunger to atone for their early dismissals in the first match: 'The way this partnership was stitched by Smriti and Shafali, that hunger was evident in them — that "We had made a mistake in the last match, but we won't give you the chance to dismiss us cheaply every time."'

What's next for India

The third and final T20I in the series is scheduled at the Shaheed Veer Narayan Singh International Stadium on Tuesday. With the series already secured, India will look to complete a clean sweep and carry the momentum into future assignments ahead of the home Women's Champions Trophy.