In the first T20I of the tri-series, India will take on England on January 31st at the Canberra.
First things first, the bushfires affected the regions of Canberra as well and the air quality is not healthy. With teams rescheduling their practice sessions, it will be interesting to see the effect of the climate during the match.
Now, coming to the teams, Australia is known for its seam-friendly pitches and for a team like India, this will be a tough task.
In the practice match, we did see the openers struggle as well and India will be hoping for much better performance. Shafali Verma who has brought the storm to the batting line-up will be the key player once again as a lot will be expected from her. However, everyone will be aware of the fact that she failed miserably against Strano multiple times and England would have identified her weakness by now to produce a similar dismissal.
In the middle order, India will be hoping to see Richa Ghosh coming in ahead of a spinner and with Pooja Vastrakar, Shikha Pandey, Arundati Reddy forming the frontline options.
Radha Yadav and Poonam Yadav will have to take care of the middle-overs and India will be hoping that they could do well too.
Coming to England’s team, they will be confident of reproducing their performance in 2019, where they whitewashed India. After that, they had Ashes where they suffered defeat but came back stronger against Pakistan.
All eyes will be on the young players who are on the verge to play their first World Cup, which is not far away. This tournament will certainly be a learning phase for all the three teams.
Squads
India: Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Verma, Jemimah Rodriguez, Harleen Deol, Deepti Sharma, Veda Krishnamurthy, Richa Ghosh, Tania Bhatia, Poonam Yadav, Radha Yadav, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Shikha Pandey, Pooja Vastrakar, Arundhati Reddy, Nuzhat Parween.
England: Heather Knight (c), Tammy Beaumont, Amy Jones, Danielle Wyatt, Natalie Sciver, Katherine Brunt, Georgia Elwiss, Sophie Ecclestone, Freya Davies, Anya Shrubsole, Lauren Winfield, Sarah Glenn, Kate Cross, Mady Villiers, Fran Wilson.
