Toss India Women chose to bowl vs New Zealand Women
Anticipating dew in the latter half of the game, India opted to bowl against New Zealand at Seddon Park in Hamilton.
Yastika Bhatia makes her World Cup debut, coming in for the out-of-sorts opener
Shafali Verma, who fell for a duck in India’s opening fixture against Pakistan on Sunday. The hosts, meanwhile, went in with the same XI they fielded in their victory against Bangladesh two days ago in Dunedin.
Left-hand batter Bhatia, 21, will open the batting alongside fellow left-hand batter, Smriti Mandhana, said India captain Mithali Raj at the toss. Bhatia was one of
India’s top performers in the lead-up to the World Cup, including in the 4-1 ODI loss to New Zealand in Queenstown. In the warm-ups of this world tournament, she had scored 58 and 42, against South Africa and West Indies, respectively.
While conditions in Hamilton remain conducive to batting, the low and slow nature of the Seddon Park strip, as was said during the pitch report, could make 240 a competitive score.
New Zealand are coming off a
nine-wicket win in a rain-curtailed fixture against Bangladesh. They are currently placed fifth on the points table with one win in two games while India, who won their tournament opener against Pakistan, are in the third position.
India: 1 Smriti Mandhana, 2 Yastika Bhatia, 3 Deepti Sharma, 4 Mithali Raj (capt), 5 Harmanpreet Kaur, 6 Richa Ghosh (wk), 7 Sneh Rana, 8 Pooja Vastrakar, 9 Jhulan Goswami, 10 Meghna Singh, 11 Rajeshwari Gayakwad
New Zealand: 1 Sophie Devine (capt), 2 Suzie Bates, 3 Amelia Kerr, 4 Amy Satterthwaite, 5 Maddy Green, 6 Frances Mackay, 7 Katey Martin (wk), 8 Hayley Jensen, 9 Lea Tahuhu, 10 Jess Kerr, 11 Hannah Rowe
Annesha Ghosh is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo. @ghosh_annesha
