Despite the shaky form, Shefali Verma’s return to the playing XI seems certain.
hamilton, The Indian middle-order, struggling with poor form, will be expected to do well in the third league match of the ICC Women’s World Cup 2022 against the West Indies on Saturday. After a 62-run loss at the hands of New Zealand, fifth-placed Indian team would like to avoid a second loss in a row as their momentum will also be disturbed by continuous defeats on a bouncy track.
Smriti Mandhana, Mithali Raj, Yastika Bhatia and all-rounder Deepti Sharma were criticized for not putting that extra effort in the match against New Zealand. Chasing a target of 261 to win, none could run except Harmanpreet Kaur, who scored 71 off 62 balls. Despite the shaky form, Shefali Verma’s return to the playing XI seems certain. He will be expected to score runs at a fast pace which Yashtika could not do in the previous match.
Indian batsmen let go of 162 dot balls i.e. almost 27 overs were not scored. The team could score only 50 runs in the first 20 overs. Head coach Ramesh Pawar had sharply criticized the team’s performance. Now there are players like Stephanie Taylor, Deandra Dottin and Anissa Mohammed in front.
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Pawar said before the match, “To be honest, I was surprised to see the team’s batting in 20 overs. But if we look at our performance in the last six matches against New Zealand, we executed our strategy very well. Mithali, who is playing her last tournament, is battling poor form and Mandhana is also doing well in pieces. This is creating a lot of pressure on Pooja Vastrakar and Sneh Rana. Coach Pawar clearly said that he wants the senior players to play more responsibly.
“It’s the pressure of the World Cup but I don’t want to make excuses. This is the time to do well and for this we were preparing for the last six months. “We went to England and Australia and New Zealand also came early. We got full opportunities to practice and now the team has to perform well as a unit.
The selection committee headed by Neetu David did not pick opener S Meghna, whose team is missing. West Indies got off to a good start in the tournament and skipper Taylor would like to keep the momentum going. In the last match, they defeated defending champions England. Taylor has many options to bowl. Against England, he tried eight bowlers. They have bowlers like Shamiliya Connell, Shakira Salman, Chinelle Henry and Anissa, so the challenge will not be easy for India.(Agency)