India Women will be keen to turn it around after what happened at the Allan Border field on Thursday, December 5. After taking some tough calls as far as the squad was concerned, the replacements and reinforcement in the Indian squad didn’t really turn into results as the Women in Blue were skittled for just 100. Indian bowlers were certainly on the mark but the batters didn’t score enough for the bowlers to have any chance on an assisting pitch, which would be their hope in the second ODI to turn the series around.
India need their batters to step up to stay alive in the series. Apart from Jemimah Rodrigues, who continued to be India’s best ODI batter, no one offered much resistance and hence, the top order will be in the spotlight yet again, especially if Australia field first for the second time.
Australia too would be a little concerned with their batting display as well but their bowling led by Megan Schutt more than compensated for it. With the ICC Championship points at stake, Australia wouldn’t want to miss any points given India have automatically qualified for next year’s ODI World Cup, being the hosts. The batting improvement will be the main objective for both teams and a win for India to take it to the decider at WACA in Perth.
Georgia Voll, Ellyse Perry, Beth Mooney, Jemimah Rodrigues (vc), Richa Ghosh, Ashleigh Gardner, Tahlia McGrath, Megan Schutt (c), Priya Mishra, Renuka Thakur Singh, Deepti Sharma
Australia Women: Phoebe Litchfield, Georgia Voll, Ellyse Perry, Beth Mooney(w), Annabel Sutherland, Ashleigh Gardner, Tahlia McGrath(c), Georgia Wareham, Alana King, Kim Garth, Megan Schutt
India Women: Priya Punia, Smriti Mandhana, Harleen Deol, Harmanpreet Kaur(c), Jemimah Rodrigues, Richa Ghosh(w), Deepti Sharma, Saima Thakor, Titas Sadhu, Priya Mishra, Renuka Thakur Singh
