Some of the top women competitors and entertainers will be seen in action in a T20 tri-series at the Brabourne Stadium here from Thursday.
The tournament will open with a match between India and Australia. England has a 71-plus percent win record from 105 matches, and Australia a fraction less than 60 from 101.
Australia, led by Meg Lanning, leads the ICC rankings and seems to be the firm favourite. However, England, led by Heather Knight, had defeated Australia 2-1 last November in the T20 series, and will fancy its chances.
India, not in the best form with the bat and ball in recent times, and led by Harmanpreet Kaur will have to score a few upset wins to stay till the end right through the tournament.
India has not beaten England for eight years (with a record of two wins and nine losses). It has has got the better of Australia in three of the last five matches, though Australia holds a 9-3 win record.
The focus will be around the home team because of its performance in last year’s ICC World Cup (50 overs) and some swashbuckling knocks played by Smriti Mandhana and Harmanpreet.
But, after a long break and a successful tour of South Africa that saw Mithali Raj’s team began its campaign in the ICC Women’s Championship earning four points from two wins, it was not up to scratch against Australia in the three-match ODI series in Vadodra. India lost the first match by eight wickets, the second by 60 runs and the third by 97 runs.
The change in format brings in a level playing field, but the the onus will be upon the likes of Harmanpreet (73 matches, 1305 runs) and Smriti (32 matches, 559 runs) — the big hitters in the front pack — to post or chase challenging totals. On Wednesday, Mithali Raj spoke highly of Mumbai’s 17-year-old, Jemima Rodrigues and Pooja Vastarkar.
Harmanpreet admitted her team has to improve. “There are a lot of areas where we need to improve, especially fielding. The girls are looking confident and we will do better. We are in the learning process and preparing for the World Cup. When we played T20 in South Africa, everybody enjoyed it because we were playing that format after 13 months.”
While Australia’s preparation has been perfect, winning two warm-up games and three ODIs, England scored overwhelming wins against India-A in the two friendlies played at the Brabourne on Tuesday and Wednesday.
The Australian team, not consistent in the Twenty20 format, has been strengthened by the arrival of specialists Delissa Kimmince and Naomi Stalenberg.
Ruled out of the ODI series against Australia, Jhulan Goswami has recovered from a foot injury and is all set to return to the playing XI. But, on the eve of the match, the injured left-arm spinner Ekta Bisht (36 matches, 45 wickets at 14.84), was replaced by Rajeshwari Gayakwad.
The teams (from):
India: Harmanpreet Kaur (captain), Smriti Mandhana, Mithali Raj, Veda Krishnamurthy, Jemimah Rodrigues, Anuja Patil, Deepti Sharma, Taniya Bhatia (wk), Poonam Yadav, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Jhulan Goswami, Shikha Pandey, Pooja Vastrakar, Rumeli Dhar and Mona Meshram.
Australia: Meg Lanning (captain), Rachael Haynes, Nicola Carey, Ashleigh Gardner, Alyssa Healy, Jess Jonassen, Delissa Kimmince, Sophie Molineux, Beth Mooney, Ellyse Perry, Megan Schutt, Naomi Stalenberg, Elyse Villani and Amanda-Jade Wellington.
The schedule
March 22 and 26: India vs Australia.
March 25 and 29: India vs England.
March 23 and 28: Australia vs England.
March 31: Final.
