Tennis legend Sania Mirza doesn’t know much about cricket but as an elite athlete for the last two decades, she feels she can help Royal Challengers Bangalore’s women cricketers to deal with the mental aspect in the inaugural Women’s Premier League.

Sania has been roped in as mentor by RCB for the WPL that kicked off on Saturday.

RCB, led by India opener Smriti Mandhana, will open their campaign against Delhi Capitals on Sunday.

“I know nothing about cricket. I thought what I am going to do, what am I going to talk to the girls. I am recently retired, last week actually. So I was thinking what’s my next step in life. So my next step was try and help women athletes around and in India,” said Sania, who was seen speaking to the RCB contingent, video of which has been posted on the franchise’s official Twitter handle.

“In any sport, it’s important to help with the mental aspect of things which I have been through for the last 20 years,” Sania said.

Asked by a player how hard it was for her to retire, Sania said: “I was actually ready. I have a son who is 4 and honestly the last one year has been a struggle. I had three surgeries. I just thought it was good to go out on top. I just wanted to stop.”

Sania said as mentor, her role will be to help RCB in their journey towards maiden WPL title.

“I was in individual sport, so photo shoot, media attention, everything I handled on my own, so I thought okay I can actually give something to the girls,” she said.

“It’s normal to feel the pressure but you just have to know how to deal with it, block the noise a little bit and Indian media is tough.”

Sania reminded the RCB players their goals behind taking up the sport of cricket.