England Women vs India Women 3rd ODI: Vice-Captain Harmanpreet Kaur will be desperate to regain form as India plays the third and final ODI of the series against England on Saturday. Avoiding a crushing defeat of 3-0 will be the biggest challenge for team India.
The third ODI between India and England will start on July 3 at 3.30 pm Indian time. After winning the first two ODIs, England is leading 2-0 in the series.
The Mithali Raj-led side is finding it difficult to regain momentum after losing 6 out of the last 7 ODIs. The Indian side had lost to the South African women's team on home soil and is now in danger of being wiped out in the ODI series against England as well.
In the second ODI of the series, the bowlers raised the level of their game and performed better, but the team faced defeat due to poor batting performance. The fall of wickets at frequent intervals increases pressure on Mithali Raj, and adversely affects her batting performance.
The biggest concern for the team is the shoddy batting of vice-captain Harmanpreet Kaur, whose performance has not been consistent for the last 4 years. After a brilliant inning of 171 runs in the 2017 World Cup against Australia, she has scored half-centuries in only two matches. During this period, she got the opportunity to bat 22 times in 28 matches.
The inability of players like Mithali, Jemima Rodrigues, Poonam Raut, Deepti Sharma, and Tania Bhatia to play big shots increases pressure on openers Smriti Mandhana and 17-year-old Shefali Verma.
Mithali scored half-centuries in both the matches for India, but her strike rate was around 60. Dot balls have also been a big problem for Indian batters. In the first match, the team could not score a single run in 181 balls in 50 overs against Katherine Brunt, Anya Shrubsole, Nate Sciver, Kate Cross and Sophie Ecclestone.
The same situation was repeated in the second ODI as well. After Shefali's 55-ball 44 in the initial overs, the team managed to cross the 220-run mark due to some big shots by Jhulan Goswami in the last overs.
It will be interesting to see if coach Ramesh Powar has a solution to Harmanpreet's poor rhythm and whether he feels the vice-captain needs to be dropped or rested after this series. The national team cannot retain a player who has performed poorly for years.
In the bowling department, both Jhulan and leg-spinner Poonam Yadav did well in the second ODI, leaving behind the disappointment of the first match. However, Indian bowlers were always under pressure due to small scores.
The teams are as follows-
India: Mithali Raj (Captain), Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Verma, Poonam Raut, Harmanpreet Kaur (Vice Captain), Deepti Sharma, Tania Bhatia (WK), Sneh Rana, Jhulan Goswami, Shikha Pandey, Jemima Rodrigues, Arundhati Reddy, Pooja Vastrakar , Ekta Bisht, Radha Yadav, Poonam Yadav, Priya Poonia, Indrani Roy (wk).
England: Heather Knight (c), Tammy Beaumont, Kate Cross, Nate Sciver, Sophia Dunkley, Lauren Winfield-Hill, Anya Shrubsole, Katherine Brunt, Sophie Ecclestone, Amy Jones (wk), Freya Davies, Tash Farrant, Sarah Glenn, Maddy Villiers, Fran Wilson, Sarah Glenn, Emily Arlott.