India, on the other hand, will require more from the known celebrities. Mithali, 39, has been a wonderful servant to Indian cricket and is in excellent form, having scored nine half-centuries in her previous 20 appearances, although just two of them have come in Indian victories.
India will need to step up their game when they face hosts New Zealand in their second game on Thursday, after beating Pakistan in their Women’s World Cup opener.
Mithali Raj‘s squad is confident, but they must be wary of the Kiwis, who defeated them 4-1 in an ODI series just before the event.
India avoided a clean sweep by winning the last game of the series, although veteran players Mithali and Harmanpreet Kaur were unable to make winning contributions.
Shafali Verma, the opener, is visibly struggling with her form. Smriti Mandhana scored a magnificent 52 against Pakistan, although she wasn’t at her most graceful.
Deepti Sharma contributed 40 runs at No. 3, a position more suited to Yastika Bhatia, who scored 58 and 42 runs in the warm-up games against South Africa and the West Indies, respectively.
If India is forced to put Yastika in the XI, either Pooja Vastrakar or Sneh Rana, both heroes in India’s victory against Pakistan, would be dropped.
India was spared from humiliation by their record 122-run seventh-wicket partnership. With the ball in hand, the two players are also highly adept.
India, on the other hand, will require more from the known celebrities. Mithali smashed a 36-ball 9, while Harmanpreet snatched 5.
In the middle overs, the partnership struggled to rotate strike and kept eating dot balls. Batting slots 4 and 5 are critical, and this is where a kid like Yastika might shine.
In her limited ODI experience, the left-hander is a free-flowing hitter with a strike rate of 73.94.
Mithali, 39, has been a wonderful servant to Indian cricket and is in excellent form, having scored nine half-centuries in her previous 20 appearances, although just two of them have come in Indian victories.
The skipper is competing in her sixth World Cup and, by current standards, is scoring too slowly. Mithali may be preferred by the opposition to face more balls than Yastika, Richa Ghosh, Sneh, or Pooja.
Harmanpreet, Mithali’s deputy, hit 63 in the previous ODI against New Zealand, her third half-century since the 2017 World Cup final.
In the warm-up game against South Africa, she scored a century, but her 14-ball stay at the crease against Pakistan was a disaster.
Apart from Pooja and Sneh, experienced pacer Jhulan Goswami and left-arm spinner Rajeshwari Gayakwad both contributed to India’s 107-run victory against Pakistan.
Rajeshwari responded with amazing numbers of 4/31 after skillfully varying her speed and capitalising on the worn surface.
Not to mention Rich, the youthful stumper who shone behind the plate. Five dismissals were attributed to the adolescent (four catches and one stumping).
Edited By: Kiran Maharana
Published By: Shramana Sengupta
