India pulled off the second-biggest run chase in the history of Women's T20 World Cup in their campaign opener against arch-rivals Pakistan but now they will face a wounded West Indies side who are on a losing streak of as many as 14 T20Is.
While the run chase was made possible in the absence of opener Smriti Mandhana, it was India's bowling in slog overs that looked below par. Indian bowlers were taken to the cleaners by Pakistan hard-hitter Ayesha Naseem and captain Bismah Maroof. West Indies have plenty of hard-hitters among their ranks India need to be vary of.
Mandhana is likely to return to the playing XI against West Indies after recovering from finger injury. She batted well in the training session on the eve of the group fixture against champions of 2016 edition of T20 World Cup. India's bowling coach Troy Cooley feels that everything has been done in order to get Mandhana fit before the game.
“She has been working very hard and she will be assessed after training. She did everything that needed to be done and we are pretty confident she got through the session OK,” Cooley said.
It will be interesting to see if Harmanpreet Kaur makes any changes to the bowling department after India conceded 91 runs against Pakistan in the latter half of the innings.
While Jemimah Rodrigues played the role of the anchor, it was wicketkeeper-batter Richa Ghosh who rescued India with a match-winning cameo. Ghosh was unperturbed by the required run rate that went over 10 runs per over. India would not like to leave it all for Ghosh this time around as they would hope other batters prove their worth as well.
When Mandhana walks back into the side, either Harleen Deol or Yastika Bhatia is likely to sit out. Bhatia was not impressive up the order whereas Deol did not get a chance to bat as India won the game by seven wickets with one over to spare.
India would like to capitalise on low-on-confidence West Indies side led by Hayley Matthews. Skipper Matthews played her role well but her opening partners Stafanie Taylor scored just three runs from 15 deliveries against England in their campaign opener. Indian bowlers already have their work cut out against the Caribbean batters when they take the field at Newlands, Cape Town.
