India vs Australia Predicted XI: ICC Women’s T20 World Cup

India will be taking on Australia in what will be the opening match of the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup at the Spotless Stadium in Sydney, with the hosts aiming to get off to a winning start on home soil.

India on the other hand will be aware of the challenge at hand, but will be under no pressure entering the encounter as underdogs.

Smriti Mandhana will be the linchpin of the Indian XI and is the highest run-getter in the world in the last couple of years. Since the 1st of January, 2018, the Indian opener has scored 1243 runs in 42 innings at an average of 31.07 and strike rate of 129.61.

Not only has Mandhana scored big runs but also scored them at a fair clip – this makes her a very destructive top-order batsman.

She was the highest scorer of the recently concluded tri-series in Australia where she aggregated 216 runs in just 5 innings at a strike rate of 136.7. Mandhana also has the experience of playing in Australian conditions having represented Brisbane Heat in the Big Bash League 2016 and Hobart Hurricanes in the 2018 season.

Here are the squads for both sides ahead of the crucial encounter.

Australia: Erin Burns, Nicola Carey, Ashleigh Gardner, Rachael Haynes (vice-capt), Alyssa Healy (wk), Jess Jonassen, Delissa Kimmince, Meg Lanning (capt), Sophie Molineux, Beth Mooney, Ellyse Perry, Megan Schutt, Annabel Sutherland, Tayla Vlaeminck, Georgia Wareham.

India: Taniya Bhatia (wk), Harleen Deol, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Richa Ghosh, Harmanpreet Kaur (capt), Veda Krishnamurthy, Smriti Mandhana, Shikha Pandey, Arundhati Reddy, Jemimah Rodrigues, Deepti Sharma, Pooja Vastrakar, Shafali Verma, Poonam Yadav, Radha Yadav.