IND-W vs AUS-W, 1st ODI: India goals to search out proper stability towards Australia with World Cup in thoughts

The Indian ladies’s cricket group is in the midst of an unusually busy December. With three T20Is and a Test towards England, and one other purple ball fixture towards Australia and all occurring in fast succession, Harmanpreet Kaur and Co. have drifted away from the same old massive gaps in fixtures one often sees within the ladies’s calendar. Starting Thursday, the purple ball provides option to the white ball as India takes on arch-rival Australia in a three-match ODI sequence on the Wankhede Stadium right here, with stability being the first purpose pencilled onto their imaginative and prescient board.

Who to again – seniors or younger blood?

India has 4 uncapped gamers in ODIs within the squad- off spinners Shreyanka Patil, Mannat Kashyap, Saika Ishaque and pacer Titas Sadhu. Muzumdar selected to not reveal a lot by way of how these bowlers will probably be utilized in India’s white-ball blueprint main as much as the World Cup however with each World Cups hosted by sides within the subcontinent (T20 World Cup in Bangladesh in 2024, ODI World Cup in India in 2025), one wonders if the time is correct for fearless experimentation. 

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“We had a long chat with the selectors about looking ahead to the World Cup and building towards it,” India head coach Amol Muzumdar stated on the eve of the primary ODI. “That’s why we have a mix of experienced players and ones who are either making their debut or who are two-three games old. We’re going into this series with the bigger picture in mind,” he added. 

Getting into ODI mode

Smriti Mandhana, Harmanpreet Kaur and Jemimah Rodrigues weren’t in attendance for the group’s matchday eve non-compulsory observe. Shafali Verma and Yastika Bhatia spent essentially the most time with the bat, with a mixture of tempo and spin being bowled at them. Leg spin was a selected level of observe for the aspect doubtlessly in preparation to face Alana King. Shreyanka Patil batted within the nets for a substantial time, with Titas Sadhu bowling to her. Bowling coach Troy Cooley intently monitored Sadhu’s tempo and was in her ear continuously. Muzumdar labored dedicatedly on fielding as properly, with Richa Ghosh getting time behind the stumps, maybe indicating who India’s keeper of alternative for this format is perhaps for now. 

Placing the sequence in context

With the T20 extravaganza arising sooner, India predictably has not performed an excessive amount of ODI cricket within the current previous. In 15 months, the Women in Blue have performed solely two ODI sequence – a three-match sequence towards England, which India clear swept 3-0 in 2022 and one other three-match sequence towards Bangladesh, which led to a 1-1 tie earlier this 12 months. This was the sequence that noticed India skipper Harmanpreet’s notorious outburst aimed on the umpires. 

Australia, then again, has performed 4 three-match sequence this 12 months alone towards Pakistan (Aus gained 3-0), England (Eng gained 2-1), Ireland (Aus gained 2-0) and West Indies (Aus gained 2-0). The aspect has by no means misplaced a bilateral sequence towards India and has a 40:10 win document towards its rival. 

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With India’s determination towards making Australia’s tour a multiformat sequence, every format has little reward and consequence connected to offer it a way of continuity, however the bigger purpose of acing preparation for the World occasions is definitely the elephant within the room. 

Aussie batting mainstay Beth Mooney is steering clear from letting a greater head-to-head document cloud her aspect’s judgement of India’s potential to devastate. 

“India are a huge threat in white-ball cricket, they’ve had a lot of success over the last couple of years and have some world-class players in their lineup. That’s a great challenge for this Australia team to come out firing and hopefully nullify that as early as possible. We obviously know that they’re going to play on the crowd a little bit as well, and we get right up and about when there’s a decent crowd too. So, looking forward to the contest and hopefully, we can keep them quiet as early as possible. I think that will be a really big factor in the series as a whole,” she stated.