After 3 weeks of practice sessions, the ladies from across the globe are all set to represent their respective countries in the Women’s T20 Cup beginning on 21st February in Australia. The inaugural match of the tournament will be played between the Group A teams, India Women and Australia Women at the Sydney Showground Stadium, Sydney. The game will set in motion at 1:30 PM IST.
The defending champions, Australia Women, will be looking forward to starting their campaign with a win to add yet another feather to their cap by winning another world championship trophy. On the other hand, a robust India Women’s team will try to give a tough fight to their old rivals. The last these teams met each other was during the recently concluded Tri-Nation Women’s T20 final.
Australia suffered a blow right before the start of the seris as Tayla Vlaeminck has been ruled out of the tournament due to an injury. The officials have announced Molly Strano as her replacement. The hosts will definitely try to not let the fact hamper their performance while the Women in Blue would try clinching the game at any cost to establish their dominance since the tournament opener.
Pitch Report & Weather Conditions
The game will be played at the Sydney Showground Stadium. The pitch here has a tendency to slow-down restricting the ball to hold on the surface. The team winning the toss is expected to bat first.
Talking about the weather conditions, a few of the previous matches played here witnessed rain interference and something of a similar sort in on the cards for tomorrow’s game. The temperature will be around 21-24 degrees Celsius with chances of rain.
Probable Playing XI
Indian Women
Shafali Verma, Smriti Mandhana, Jemimah Rodrigues, Harmanpreet Kaur (C), Veda Krishnamurthy, Deepti Sharma, Taniya Bhatia (WK), Shikha Pandey, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Radha Yadav, Poonam Yadav
Australia Women
Alyssa Healy (WK), Beth Mooney, Ashleigh Gardner, Meg Lanning (C), Ellyse Perry, Rachael Haynes, Sophie Molineux, Nicola Carey, Georgia Wareham, Jess Jonassen, Megan Schutt.
Key Players
India Women
Smriti Mandhana
Harmanpreet Kaus
Australia Women
Ellyse Perry
Alyssa Healy
