India's ace opener Smriti Mandhana has been ruled out of Women's T20 World Cup 2023 high-voltage fixture between arch-rivals India and Pakistan on February 12.
Mandhana picked up the finger injury during warm-up game against Australia. Stand-in coach Hrishikesh Kanitkar on the eve of India's campaign opener revealed that there is no fracture but she will not be a part of the playing XI for Pakistan encounter.
"Harman is fit to play. She has batted for the last two days in the nets, she is fine," Kanitkar said at the pre-match press conference. "Smriti has a finger injury and is still recovery, so she won't play most-likely. It's not a fracture and we're hopeful she will be available from the second game onwards."
In Mandhana's absence Jemimah Rodrigues or Yastika Bhatia may get a promotion up the order to open alongside hard-hitter Shafali Verma.
Kanitkar also talked about the pressures of India vs Pakistan encounters having been part of a few himself.
"You want to be playing the strong teams, the arch-rivals if you can cal them that," Kanitkar said. "Few of them have done it in the past, few haven't. We are totally prepared for what happens, the atmosphere is good.
"Most of them have played Pakistan in the past, they know what can happen and what the atmosphere is like. One of the privileges of playing international cricket is you play matches like these. Everyone is looking forward to it."
Kanitkar feels that the Cape Town pitch will provide assistance to spinners. India have few four spinners in their ranks in Deepti Sharma, Radha Yadav, Devika Vaidya and Rajeshwari Gaikwad. Also, skipper Haramnpreet Kaur and Shafali can roll their arm as well whenever needed.
"Spinners will have a role to play," he said. “A lot of matches have taken place here, lots of T20 cricket has been played. Pitches in East London were pretty similar to what we get in India, but Cape Town [venue for India's first two group games] am not sure. I watched the match yesterday [South Africa v Sri Lanka] and the pitch looked good. There was some assistance for spin, but it will make for good cricket.”