Smarting from a heavy loss in the final one-dayer, the Indian women’s cricket team will aim for a solid showing in the opening encounter of the three-match T20I series against New Zealand, beginning here on Wednesday.

The three-match series, a part of the Women’s ODI Championship, was won by India 2-1 but it suffered an eight-wicket loss at Hamilton on February 1 after being bowled out for 149.

Harmanpreet Kaur, who did not get to do much in the ODIs in which Mithali Raj was captain, will lead the T20 side.

It will be India’s first game in the format since the loss to England at the Word T20 in the Caribbean, where Mithali was dropped for the all-important semifinal.

Tackling spinners

Surprisingly, the Indian batters struggled the most against spinners in the third ODI and that is one area they would look to improve.

Harmanpreet is expected to play a much bigger role with the bat and lot will depend on start provided by Smriti Mandhana and Jemimah Rodrigues, who both were not amongst the runs at Hamilton.

Smriti, however, had a memorable series with scores of 90 and 105, enough to earn her the player-of-the-series award.

Tanya Bhatia had opened with Smriti in the World T20 semifinal against England but since then Jemimah has formed a potent pairing with the southpaw.

Uncapped all-rounder Priya Punia, who replaced an out of form Veda Krishnamurthy, will also be keenly watched.

The teams:

New Zealand: Amy Satterthwaite (Capt.), Suzie Bates, Bernadine Bezuidenhout, Sophie Devine, Hayley Jensen, Caitlin Gurrey, Leigh Kasperek, Amelia Kerr, Frances Mackay, Katey Martin, Rosemary Mair, Hannah Rowe, and Lea Tahuhu.

India: Harmanpreet Kaur (Capt.), Smriti Mandhana, Mithali Raj, Jemimah Rodrigues, Deepti Sharma, Taniya Bhatia, Poonam Yadav, Radha Yadav, Anuja Patil, Ekta Bisht, D. Hemalatha, Mansi Joshi, Arundhati Reddy, Shikha Pandey, and Priya Punia.