Australia women's team captain Alyssa Healy won the all-important toss and elected to field in the first T20I against India women's team on December 09 (Friday) at Dr DY Patil Sports Academy, Mumbai. Both teams went in with their strongest playing XIs in an attempt to kickstart the five-match series in the best possible fashion.
India Women (Playing XI): Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Verma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Harmanpreet Kaur(c), Devika Vaidya, Richa Ghosh(w), Deepti Sharma, Radha Yadav, Anjali Sarvani, Meghna Singh, Renuka Singh
Australia Women (Playing XI): Alyssa Healy(w/c), Beth Mooney, Tahlia McGrath, Ashleigh Gardner, Ellyse Perry, Grace Harris, Annabel Sutherland, Jess Jonassen, Alana King, Kim Garth, Megan Schutt
with only a couple of months to go before the T20 World Cup gets underway in South Africa, this is a good chance for the Harmanpreet Kaur-led side to gauge exactly where it is they stand in the aftermath of the five games.
However, it is safe to say that as far as the Indian contingent is concerned, the build-up to the series has been far from ideal to say the least.
Head coach Ramesh Powar was suddenly sacked three days before the series opener and former India batter Hrishikesh Kanitkar is now in charge of the support staff as the designated batting coach.
India managed to win the Asia Cup in October though they were guilty of experimenting a tad too much, costing them a league game against Pakistan.
In the recent past, India have managed to compete against mighty Australia but failed to get over the line. One such case was their last meeting in the Commonwealth Games final in August when India threw it away after a blinder from Harmanpreet in the run chase.
Australia squad: Alyssa Healy (c), Tahlia McGrath (vc), Darcie Brown, Nicola Carey, Ashleigh Gardner, Kim Garth, Heather Graham, Grace Harris, Jess Jonassen, Alana King, Phoebe Litchfield, Beth Mooney, Ellyse Perry, Megan Schutt, Annabel Sutherland
India squad: Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Smriti Mandhana (vc), Shafali Verma, Yastika Bhatia, Jemimah Rodrigues, Deepti Sharma, Radha Yadav, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Renuka Singh Thakur, Meghna Singh, Anjali Sarvani, Devika Vaidya, S Meghana, Richa Ghosh, Harleen Deol.
