Manchester: India will hope that skipper Harmanpreet Kaur and hard-hitting opener Shafali Verma will return to run-making ways in their quest to clinch the women’s T20I series during the fourth match here on Wednesday.
India are leading 2-1 in the five-match series but England exposed a few chinks in the visitors’ ranks in the third game at the Oval last week during a five-run win.
Shafali looked in prime touch during a 25-ball 47 and Harmanpreet made 17-ball 23 but both batters failed to build on the start, robbing India some momentum.
Smriti Mandhana and Jemimah Rodrigues and Amanjot Kaur have so far shouldered India’s batting, and they would welcome a stronger support from these two experienced campaigners.
On a personal level too, Shafali will be eager to leave a larger footprint as she is yet to score big since her return to India colours after an eight-month hiatus for this series.
Her returns from the other two matches were 20 and 3.
Harmanpreet, who missed the first match with a head injury that she suffered during a side game, replaced Harleen Deol for the second and third match, but made 1 and 23.
Deol was quite impressive in the first match, making a 23-ball 43 at Nottingham, helping Mandhana maintain her rhythm.
India have been served well in this series by spinners N Shree Charani (8 wickets), Deepti Sharma (6) and pacer Arundhati Reddy (4), as they have managed to fetch regular breakthroughs.
But they will need a bit more backing from left-arm spinner Radha Yadav and pacer Amanjot as they have given away 8.5 and 9 runs per over across the previous three matches.
India women’s team bowling coach Aavishkar Salvi was effusive in his praise of Shree Charani, saying she had the traits to excel at the international level.
“The way she has performed after she had a chance in the ODIs as well as in the T20s, that speaks for itself. And she has those qualities to be successful at the international level. A youngster having so much potential obviously needs to be backed,” Salvi told reporters on the eve of the match.
“She’s very hardworking and has a good mindset as well,” he added.
With India relying more on spin than pace during the series and getting rewarded, the coach said he would persist with the plan.
“We are going with four spinners into the squad. And, all the four spinners are bowling pretty well. In T20, it’s about executing the plans and I think the bowlers who are playing, I think they’re executing their plans pretty well.
“So likewise, during the camps, during the pre-match, whatever practices we got, I thought this was the best combination that we could have had for us,” he added.
From an England perspective, they still need massive doses of improvement in batting to level the series 2-2.
The hosts’ total of 171 for nine was constructed around fifties from openers Sophia Dunkley and Danni Wyatt-Hodge as the rest of the line-up collapsed from a healthy 137 for one in the 16th over.
Their bowlers also need to lend more support to pacer Lauren Bell to contain the seasoned Indian batting line-up.
Teams (from): India: Harmanpreet Kaur (C), Smriti Mandhana (VC), Shafali Verma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Richa Ghosh (WK), Yastika Bhatia (WK), Harleen Deol, Deepti Sharma, Sneh Rana, Sree Charani, Shuchi Upadhyay, Amanjot Kaur, Arundhati Reddy, Kranti Gaud, Sayali Satghare.
England: Tammy Beaumont (C), Em Arlott, Lauren Bell, Alice Capsey, Charlie Dean, Sophia Dunkley, Sophie Ecclestone, Lauren Filer, Amy Jones (wk), Paige Scholfield, Linsey Smith, Danni Wyatt-Hodge, Issy Wong, Maia Bouchier.
Match starts at 11 pm IST.
