As India begin their preparations for the upcoming Women’s World Cup 2022, they will warm-up with one-off T20I against New Zealand at John Davies Oval, Queenstown on February 9. The Harmanpreet Kaur-led India will have a point to prove as they have not beaten New Zealand in a T20I in their backyard.
The last time India played a T20I series in New Zealand, they were whitewashed in the three-T20I series. In the 2019 tour, while the first clash was a one-sided contest, the other two went right down to the wire. Overall, India have played 12 T20Is against New Zealand and emerged victorious on four occasions.
India are missing their best performer against New Zealand with the bat in the one-off T20I. Jemimah Rodrigues has scored 201 runs from five games at an average of 40.20 including two fifties. Skipper Harmanpreet and opener Smriti Mandhana are not far behind as they have 198 and 197 runs respectively against White Ferns in the format.
The last time India faced New Zealand was in T20 World Cup 2020 where they won by a narrow margin of three runs. Shafali Verma was the top run-scorer for India with 46 runs. The no.1 T20I batter will be a key player for India in the one-off T20I and the five-ODI series. It will be interesting to see if Richa Ghosh gets a chance in the encounter ahead of Taniya Bhatia. The wicketkeeper-batter Ghosh is a good hitter and contribute with cameos in the middle order. Yastika Bhatia is another future prospect who could feature in the game. Yastika did not have a fruitful debut T20I series against Australia last year where she scored just 23 runs from two games.
Indian bowlers need to be wary of New Zealand skipper Sophie Devine who is capable of hitting big boundaries. Batting lower in the order, Amelia Kerr can be a dangerous batter in slog overs. In the last T20I, she played a quickfire unbeaten 34-run cameo but could not see her team through.
India squad: Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Verma, Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Yastika Bhatia, Richa Ghosh (wk), Pooja Vastrakar, Deepti Sharma, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Poonam Yadav, Renuka Singh, Ekta Bisht, Sneh Rana, Sabbhineni Meghana, Meghna Singh, Taniya Bhatia, Simran Bahadur
New Zealand squad: Suzie Bates, Sophie Devine (c), Amy Satterthwaite, Maddy Green, Katey Martin (wk), Amelia Kerr, Brooke Halliday, Hayley Jensen, Hannah Rowe, Jess Kerr, Lea Tahuhu, Fran Jonas, Rosemary Mair, Lauren Down, Frances Mackay
