On Sunday (8th March), India Women will play against the hosts and defending champions Australia Women in the final of the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2020 at Melbourne Cricket Ground (Melbourne).
In the Group stages of this tournament, India Women won all the four matches in the Group A as they beat Australia Women, Bangladesh Women, New Zealand Women and Sri Lanka Women respectively.
In the first semi-final of this tournament, India Women had been scheduled to face England Women. But the match wasn’t possible due to the rain washout, and India Women qualified for the final due to having higher points than England Women.
Ahead of the final match of this tournament, here is India Women’s predicted XI for this only remaining match.
Shafali Verma
The no.1-ranked T20I batswoman Shafali Verma is one of the most in-form batters in this tournament. The 16-year-old right-handed opening batsman scored 29, 39, 46 and 47 runs respectively. Apart from scoring consistently, she is also providing speedy starts for her team. Verma is going to be an important player of the upcoming final.
Smriti Mandhana
The left-handed opening batter Smriti Mandhana has disappointed with her batting performances in this tournament. In this tournament, she scored 10, 11 and 17 runs respectively. She needs to play a better role in the final.
Harmanpreet Kaur (c)
India Women’s batting is also depended on the captain Harmanpreet Kaur. However, the skipper has too disappointed with her weak batting performances in this tournament. The right-handed batswoman scored only 2, 8, 1 and 15 runs respectively. While she will play the historic final on her 31st birthday, the Indian fans are expecting her familiar responsible batting performance in this crucial match.
Jemimah Rodrigues
The youngster Jemimah Rodrigues is the second most run-scorer for India Women in this tournament as she has scored 85 runs in four innings with an average of 28.33. The right-handed batter scored 26, 34, 10 and 15 runs respectively. She can play a much better role for her team in the final.
Deepti Sharma
In the opening game of this tournament, Deepti Sharma scored 49*. In the next matches, the left-handed batter scored 11, 8 and 15 not out. The off-spinner has also taken two wickets in this tournament.
Taniya Bhatia (wk)
The 22-year-old Taniya Bhatia is a smart wicketkeeper as she is leading the chart of the most dismissals by a wicketkeeper in this tournament. She involved in nine dismissals, including six catches and three stumpings. During the match against New Zealand Women, she also played a crucial knock of 23 runs.
Veda Krishnamurthy
The middle-order batter Veda Krishnamurthy has got very limited opportunities in this tournament. However, her late cameo of 20 not out off 11 balls against Bangladesh Women massively helped the Indian Women team.
Shikha Pandey
The right-arm medium pacer Shikha Pandey has put impressive impact in this tournament with the ball in hand. She has taken seven wickets in this tournament, which is the second most wickets among the India Women bowlers. She especially bowled well in the first game of this tournament against the hosts where she had the bowling figures of 3.5-0-14-3.
Arundhati Reddy
The right-arm medium-fast bowler Arundhati Reddy has played the first two matches of this tournament. While she failed to pick up a wicket in the tournament opener against Australia Women, she got two wickets against Bangladesh Women. Though she has bowled expensively in this tournament, she can be featured in the upcoming final to add variety in the bowling squad.
Poonam Yadav
The leg-spinner Poonam Yadav is the joint most wicket-taker in this ongoing tournament along with the Australian right-arm medium-pacer Megan Schutt as both have picked up nine wickets each in this tournament. She won the Player of the Match award in the tournament opener after managing the bowling figures of 4-0-19-4 against Australia Women.
Rajeshwari Gayakwad
The left-arm spinner Rajeshwari Gayakwad is providing crucial impact for the team with her consistently improving bowling performances. Apart from taking five wickets in this tournament, she is the only Indian bowler in this tournament to manage to bowl a maiden over.