High on confidence after the impressive win over title holder Australia, India will look to carry forward the momentum against a plucky Bangladesh in its second Group A match of the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup here on Monday.
Leg-spinner Poonam Yadav’s magical spell helped India defeat Australia by 17 runs in the tournament opener on Friday but the Harmanpreet Kaur-led side can’t afford to take Bangladesh lightly as it had defeated India twice in the 2018 T20 Asia Cup.
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Jemimah Rodrigues and Shafali Verma, who hit a typically aggressive 29 off 15 balls against Australia, will need to come good against Bangladesh.
In the last five meetings between the two sides, India is ahead 3-2 on head-to-head record and a win on Monday will take it closer to the knock-out rounds from the five-team group.
India will, however, need to improve its batting as it scored a below par 132 against Australia.
Captain Harmanpreet and opener Smriti Mandhana contributed little with the bat in the previous match and both will need to fire and put up a big total or chase down a target.
In another match on Monday, Australia plays Sri Lanka.
The teams (from):
India: Harmanpreet Kaur (Capt.), Smriti Mandhana, Jemimah Rodrigues, Deepti Sharma, Shafali Verma, Poonam Yadav, Radha Yadav, Taniya Bhatia (wk), Harleen Deol, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Richa Ghosh, Veda Krishnamurthy, Shikha Pandey, Arundhati Reddy and Pooja Vastrakar.
Bangladesh: Salma Khatun (Capt.), Rumana Ahmed, Ayasha Rahman, Fahima Khatun, Fargana Hoque, Jahanara Alam, Khadija Tul Kubra, Sobhana Mostary, Murshida Khatun, Nahida Akter, Nigar Sultana (wk), Panna Ghosh, Ritu Moni, Sanjida Islam and Shamima Sultana.
Match starts at 4:30 p.m. IST.