India’s women’s cricket team’s hunt for a maiden ICC title will begin against New Zealand in the Women’s T20 World Cup 2024 on Friday. To get their hands on that elusive trophy, Harmanpreet Kaur & Co need to perfect balance in what is expected to be a sluggish and spin-friendly surface in Dubai. INDW vs NZW match begins at 7 PM IST.
Form, a worry
However, in the two warm-ups, the Women in Blue seemed unsure what their batting line-up would be. Harmanpreet Kaur left her best spot (number one) and decided to come one down in both games. Yastika Bhatia batted at 5 in the first game against the West Indies but wasn’t given a go in the second match against South Africa.
The biggest issue is the lack of performance from the top 3 (Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Verma, and Harmanpreet). For a team to be successful, you must have a solid top order that consistently shows up. Mandhana is one of the best T20 players right now, and her non-performance can be brushed aside, but her opening partner Shafali has always been hit-and-miss. She averages just 25 after 81 WT20Is and scored just 7 runs (0 and 7) in the warm-up matches.
Harmanpreet’s form has been a massive issue in the last couple of years. Since 2019, only once has the Indian captain had a strike rate of over 120 in a year. In two separate T20 leagues in 2024 (The Women’s Hundred and Women’s Big Bash), she failed to attract a bidder.
Why the sudden change?
Her and head coach Amol Mazumdar’s decision to promote her to 3 didn’t work. One has to question why this move was made now and not during the Women’s Asia Cup. Yastika Bhatia had gotten injured during the Bangladesh series, and if they indeed wanted to shuffle the batting order, why not do it against Nepal or the UAE?
Now that Yastika has returned, why wasn’t she given back her spot (3)? Dayalan Hemalatha was tried at that position in the Asia Cup, and the move didn’t work. Other than them, no pure batter is present in the squad. Playing Harmanpreet at 3 seems like a big gamble; the question is, are Team India ready to do so in the Women’s T20 World Cup?
Kiwi challenge
Sophie Devine’s New Zealand are amid a bad patch. They haven’t won a T20I match since March 24, having played 10 matches since. In comparison, India have an 11-4 record this year, which includes wins over Australia and South Africa. However, the Kiwis fared much better in their Women’s T20 World Cup warm-up match against South Africa but lost to England subsequently.
Team India should feel confident given they have most of their bases covered and New Zealand won’t be confident about facing them in spin-friendly Dubai. The only good thing for Kiwis would be their overall T20 head-to-head, which favours them (9-4).
Predicted India Playing XI vs New Zealand
Shafali Verma, Smriti Mandhana (vc), Yastika Bhatia, Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Jemimah Rodrigues, Richa Ghosh (wk), Deepti Sharma, Pooja Vastrakar, Asha Sobhana, Radha Yadav, Renuka Singh Thakur.
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