The moment of truth has arrived for the Indian women’s cricket team as they begin their quest to win their maiden ICC trophy when they take on Sri Lanka in the opening match of the Women’s ODI World Cup at the ACA Stadium here on Tuesday. The clash between the co-hosts sets the ball rolling in the 13th edition, with the home team eager to begin their campaign with a convincing win in preparation for the sterner tests ahead.
Good record vs Sri Lanka
Despite India having a healthy record against Sri Lanka, on their day the southern neighbours can be tough opponents. They are led by experienced skipper Chamari Athapaththu and have a few players who can be match-winners. Thus, India would like to get their combination right against an opponent who can give them a good workout. India’s batting line-up is well set; Smriti Mandhana and Pratika Rawal as openers, with Harleen Deol, captain Harmanpreet Kaur and
Jemimah Rodrigues to follow.
It’s the bowling combination where coach Amol Mazumdar will have to take the right call, going by horses for courses and gauging the strengths and weaknesses of the rivals. The biggest question is whether they will prefer to play with an extra spinner, which worked well for them during the recent tour of England, where they won both the white-ball series and then at home against Australia in the three-match ODI series. There are two spinners who can bat well, Deepti Sharma and Radha Yadav. Then they have Sneh Rana and N Shree Charani. It will be interesting to see who will sit out the first game.
Skipper Kaur was non-committal about the combination that the team would go with, saying, “I am not going to reveal our strategy. But yes, the spinners are the backbone of our bowling attack and hopefully they will continue to do well for us.”
Kaur, who is the only Indian to have played the World Cup at home, when she was a member of the 2013 squad, said, “The team has played so many matches over the last few years, and won most of them. That has given us the confidence and we have learnt to absorb the pressure and hopefully, this would be our World Cup this time.”
We can surprise India: SL skipper
On the other hand, Sri Lankan skipper Chamari felt that the pressure would be on the home team due to huge expectations this time around, “and if we play our best cricket on the day, we can surprise them.” However, she rated the Indians as the favourites, being familiar with the conditions and hoped that finally an Asian team would lift the World Cup.