Just a week back, India and Bangladesh tussled it out in a World Cup final with the Tigers emerging victorious. Now, as India's Women's team head into their second group game of ICC Women's T20 World Cup against Bangladesh, the colts - who lost last week in the ICC Under-19 World Cup finals to Bangladesh - will be keenly watching.
Like the colts side, the women's side has started the campaign on a big note by beating the tournament favourites and hosts Australia. Touted to be one of India Women's strongest teams at a World Cup, this Harmanpreet Kaur-led side showed promising signs during their terrific win over the Aussies.
Bangladesh are a much lesser challenge for the women's side. Making it to the T20 World Cup as a qualifier, the women's side from Bangladesh does not have the aura or class of the senior or junior men's sides. However, nothing in cricket comes easy and India Women will know that Bangladesh could just prove to be a stiff challenge on the day.
India's impressive form in the tournament opener was largely owing to a brilliant batting performance from Deepti Sharma - who had done similarly well in the Kia Super League - and Poonam Yadav. While Shafali Verma and Smriti Mandhana gave a rousing start yet again, the middle-order continues to be a challenge although Deepti's form will give them relief.
They will still need to build sizeable totals to challenge other teams including Bangladesh, against whom they cannot be complacent. Veda Krishnamurthy said as much on the eve of the Bangladesh game although she remains one of those who has struggled for form.
“We can’t be complacent with the victory against Australia. We have to let go of those emotions now and focus on repeating all the good things we did. We want to make sure we have enough of a score for our bowlers to defend. At the same time, we can’t be too ambitious with our strokes or risk being run short but we need to make sure we get enough runs on board Veda said.
Making good enough scores need to be prioritised. Poonam's act rescued India against Australia but it will be tough for the bowlers to always replicate that kind of performance or cover up for the batsmen. The Bangladesh game can be a good way for India to try and test their middle-order and give someone like Veda a bigger chance up the order.
With her strike rate, Veda is a baggage down the order and perhaps can be tried above Harmanpreet in the batting line-up. But will they try and ruffle a winning combination?
SQUADS
India women: Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Smriti Mandhana, Jemimah Rodrigues, Deepti Sharma, Shafali Verma, Poonam Yadav, Radha Yadav, Taniya Bhatia (wk), Harleen Deol, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Richa Ghosh, Veda Krishnamurthy, Shikha Pandey, Arundhati Reddy, Pooja Vastrakar.
Bangladesh women: Salma Khatun (c), Rumana Ahmed, Ayasha Rahman, Fahima Khatun, Fargana Hoque, Jahanara Alam, Khadija Tul Kubra, Sobhana Mostary, Murshida Khatun, Nahida Akter, Nigar Sultana (wk), Panna Ghosh, Ritu Moni, Sanjida Islam, Shamima Sultana.
Feature image courtesy: Twitter / T20WorldCup
