On a sticky wicket after a mixed start to the campaign, India will look to fix their batting woes to bolster their net run rate when they take on bottom-placed Sri Lanka in their third and penultimate Group ‘A’ match of the T20 Women’s World Cup in Dubai today.
India suffered a big 58-run loss against New Zealand in their opening game but managed to get past Pakistan in Dubai by six wickets on Sunday.
Sri Lanka, on the other hand, are presently bottom of the group ‘A’ points table and are yet to win a game. They lost their opening match against lower-ranked Pakistan by 31 runs and then went down to Australia by six wickets on Saturday.
India is sweating on the fitness of Captain Harmanpreet Kaur, who sprained her neck in the last over of India’s chase against Pakistan. She retired hurt holding the back of her neck, and was later seen applying an ice pack when the teams were making their way to the team bus after the game.
Pooja Vastrakar also missed the earlier game due to a niggle with S. Sajana replacing her and it remains to be seen whether Vastrakar makes a comeback for the Sri Lanka fixture.
India holds the advantage by a 19-5 margin in T20Is against Sri Lanka. But one of those five defeats was as recent as this July at the Asia Cup final.
India will be keen on exacting revenge. They need a big win to bolster their NRR, something that they did not manage in their victory against Pakistan despite restricting them to 105.
A defeat for Sri Lanka, meanwhile, will make their chances of moving to the next round almost nil. Dew has not had much of an effect in the games in Dubai so far, with the sticky nature of the surface and long boundaries also not making run-scoring easy.
The Indians will need to lift themselves in all departments of the game as in Australia a strong opponent awaits them in their last group match.
Sri Lanka might have lost both their opening matches, but the islanders won’t be an easy opponent for India, especially after the win in the Asia Cup final in August.
India Squad: Harmanpreet Kaur (Captain), Smriti Mandhana, Yastika Bhatia, Shafali Verma, Deepti Sharma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Richa Ghosh, Pooja Vastrakar, Arundhati Reddy, Renuka Singh, D Hemalatha, Asha Sobhana, Radha Yadav, Shreyanka Patil and S. Sajana.
Sri Lanka Squad: Chamari Atapattu (Captain), Harshitha Samarawickrama, Vishmi Gunaratne, Kavisha Dilshari, Nilakshika Silva, Hasini Perera, Anushka Sanjeewani, Sachini Nisansala, Udeshika Prabodhani, Inoshi Priyadharshani, Achini Kulasuriya, Inoka Ranaweera, Shashini Gimhani, Ama Kanchana and Sugandika Kumari. (Agencies)
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