India have been dealt a major blow ahead of their women's T20 World Cup 2023 semifinal clash against Australia on February 23. Indian skipper Harmanpreet Kaur and bowling all-rounder Pooja Vastrakar were admitted to a local hospital on February 22 before they were discharged in the evening. While Vastrakar has been ruled out of semifinal due to upper respiratory tract infection, a call on Harmanpreet's availability will be taken just hours before the clash against the defending champions at Newlands, Cape Town.
If Harmanpreet doesn't recover in time for the semi-final, Smriti Mandhana is likely to lead India in the knockout clash. Harleen Deol is likely to fill in for Harmanpreet. Sneh Rana has been added to the squad as Vastrakar's replacement.
Harmanpreet has not been in best of forms having scored just 66 runs from four games. Her strike rate has also been below par. However, she has had a good record against Australia. Her record-breaking 171 came against Australia in ODI World Cup 2017. On the other hand, Vastrakar has taken two wickets from four games. However, she has not conceded runs at an alarming rate.
Also, Radha Yadav is yet to recover fully. The all-rounder missed the match against Ireland. In the pre-match press conference, wicketkeeper-batter Richa Ghosh had said, "Only the physio and the coach know (how she is feeling). We don't know much about her.”
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If Radha doesn’t recover as well, Yastika Bhatia may be included in the side to boost batting ahead of Devika Vaidya.
"Australia is comfortable chasing because they bat deep, we do too, but toss is not in anyone's hand. So whatever the situation, we will have to go through with it. We have plans," Ghosh, India's in-form batter told reporters on the eve of semi-final.
"We don't know how the pitch will behave tomorrow but it looks nice. We can target 180 on this if all our batters click and while bowling we will try to restrict them to 140-150 because they have a good batting lineup," the teenager added.
