India Women eye elusive ICC title, open T20 World Cup campaign against Pakistan

Searching for a long overdue ICC title India will look to hit the straps in their Womens T20 World Cup opener against archrivals Pakistan here on SundayAn IndoPak contest always creates excitement but with India being a much superior side the quality of cricket might not meet the high expectationsHaving said that Pakistan had got the better of India their last meeting in the Asia Cup last year with the latter making too many experimentsIn the last five years the gulf between the two teams has widened with India challenging the supremacy of Australia and England on a consistent basis Womens cricket in Pakistan on the other hand has stagnatedWith the game scheduled a day ahead of the inaugural Womens Premier League auction there will be added motivation for the Indian players For some it could be a distractionIndia are fretting over the fitness of their skipper Harmanpreet Kaur shoulder and Smriti Mandhana finger ahead of the opening gameAlso Read Womens T20 World Cup Interesting stats that construe the importance of India vs PakistanA call will be taken on their participation after the practice session on SaturdayThey both are senior players and very important for the team Even there is a slight doubt over their readiness for the game we will not risk playing them as it is only the first game of the tournament said a BCCI sourceIndia come into the World Cup having lost the recent triseries final to South Africa a match they should have won They also lost the warmup game to Australia before beating BangladeshIndia are expected to reach the semifinals of the ICC event again but if they are to beat the mighty Australia they will need to up their game in all departmentsBarring Renuka Singh the bowling unit doesnt inspire a lot of confidence Veteran Shikha Pandey is yet to pick a wicket since her comeback last month and will be fired up to provide early breakthroughs in the showpieceThe performance of the spinners has also been below expectations of lateIn the batting department Harmanpreet and Mandhana need all the support Shafali Verma fresh from leading India to the inaugural U19 World Cup title will be keen to prove her doubters wrong with a consistent showingPressure will be on Jemimah Rodrigues to perform as she has not been able to play an impactful knock since her comebackAlso Read Womens T20 World Cup Australia aim for recordextending 6th trophy India eye maiden titleThe role of pace bowling allrounder Pooja Vastrakar will also be critical to Indias chances in the tournamentRicha Ghosh is among the few players in the team with the Xfactor and she would be relied upon heavily for big hitting in the death oversOn Pakistans front Nida Dar will be the player to watch out forPakistan go into the competition having a played a series against Australia They beat Bangladesh in their opening warmup match before losing to South AfricaTeams fromIndia Harmanpreet Kaur c Smriti Mandhana Shafali Verma Yastika Bhatia Richa Ghosh Jemimah Rodrigues Harleen Deol Deepti Sharma Devika Vaidya Radha Yadav Renuka Thakur Anjali Sarvani Pooja Vastrakar Rajeshwari Gayakwad Shikha PandeyPakistan Bismah Maroof c Aiman Anwar Aliya Riaz Ayesha Naseem Sadaf Shamas Fatima Sana Javeria Wadood Muneeba Ali Nashra Sundhu Nida Dar Omaima Sohail Sadia Iqbal Sidra Amin Sidra Nawaz Tuba HassanMatch starts 630 ISTThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever