India captain Harmanpreet Kaur won the toss and elected to bat first against Sri Lanka in the ICC Women's T20 World Cup semifinal at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium on Wednesday.
"We're going to bat first; so far, we haven't batted first, so I thought we would put a decent total on the board," Kaur said. Discussing her recovery from a neck injury, she added, "Feeling better (talking about her neck injury), if we play better cricket maybe I will feel more better. Asia Cup we played good cricket, one odd day (talking about the final where India lose to Sri Lanka) they played good cricket. We are going with the same eleven we played in the same game," she added.
Sri Lanka captain Chamari Athapaththu stated that her team would stick to their plans, aiming to play fearless cricket. "We stick with our plans and hope to play our best cricket today. We have to play fearless cricket and taking the smart option is very important. Powerplay is really important and after that we have to rotate strike. We have one change, Ama Kanchana back in the side for Hasini Perera," she said.
The Women in Blue will go in with an unchanged playing XI, while Sri Lanka made one change, with Ama Kanchana replacing Hasini Perera in their squad.
Playing XIs:
- India: Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Verma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Richa Ghosh (w), Deepti Sharma, Sajeevan Sajana, Arundhati Reddy, Shreyanka Patil, Renuka Thakur Singh, Asha Sobhana.
- Sri Lanka: Vishmi Gunaratne, Chamari Athapaththu (c), Harshitha Samarawickrama, Kavisha Dilhari, Nilakshi de Silva, Anushka Sanjeewani (w), Ama Kanchana, Sugandika Kumari, Inoshi Priyadharshani, Udeshika Prabodhani, Inoka Ranaweera.
India's journey in the 2024 Women's T20 World Cup has been rocky. They started their campaign with a disappointing 58-run loss to New Zealand, but bounced back with a six-wicket victory over Pakistan, keeping their hopes alive for a spot in the semifinals. In their last match, India’s bowlers excelled, with pacer Arundhati Reddy taking 3 wickets for 19 runs and Shreyanka Patil claiming 2 wickets for just 12 runs. However, the batting unit struggled, needing 18.5 overs to chase down a modest target of 106 runs.
India must secure a significant victory over Sri Lanka today to enhance their chances of advancing in the tournament.