India women will square off against New Zealand women in the first ODI of the 5-match series at John Davies Oval, Queenstown, New Zealand on 12th February, Saturday from 3:30 AM IST. The two teams last played each other in the ODI format in 2019 and both the sides look formidable on paper, hence it promises to be a cracker of a contest.
The Indian women will be looking to earn a head-start in the ODI series after they faced defeat in the one-off T20I day before yesterday. The Indian side did not look sharp at all in the one-off T20I match and were handed an 18-run defeat by the hosts.
India Women are looking to win the series against the White Ferns to gain much-needed confidence before playing the World Cup. Skipper Mithali Raj, opener Smriti Mandhana, and veteran seamer Jhulan Goswami are back in the team for the ODI series after they did not feature in the T20I.
The White Ferns side will come all guns blazing against the women in blue and will be hard to beat at home. Skipper Sophie Devine also said that New Zealand will be testing out a few players in the series against India. They last played against England in September and faced a 1-4 series defeat and will be looking to regain form.
Both teams are looking to finalize their combinations as the World Cup is just around the corner.
Suzie Bates was selected after she was out of action due to an injury. Sophie Devine and Suzie Bates were on fire for the New Zealand Women’s side as the dashing duo stitched an important 60-run stand to give the white-ferns a very solid start in the T20I.
New Zealand also experimented to send Lea Tahuhu up the order as a pinch hitter and it did wonders for them as Tahuhu smashed 27 runs of just 14 balls before going back into the hut. The bowlers were also on the top right from the word go and were complimented by the fielders who took some outstanding catches in the field.
My Dream11 Team for NZ-W vs IND-W Match:
Katey Martin, Mithali Raj, Smriti Mandhana(VC), Suzie Bates,Deepti Sharma, Amy Satterthwaite, Sophie Devine(C), Hannah Rowe, Jhulan Goswami, Lea Tahuhu, Rajeshwari Gayakwad
New Zealand Women Probable Playing XI
Katey Martin, Suzie Bates, Amy Satterthwaite, Hayley Jensen, Sophie Devine(C), Jess Kerr, Amelia Kerr, Lea Tahuhu, Hannah Rowe, Maddy Green, Brooke Halliday
India Women Probable Playing XI
Mithali Raj (C), Harmanpreet Kaur, Shafali, Yastika Bhatia, Deepti Sharma, Richa Ghosh (wk), Sneh Rana, Jhulan Goswami, Pooja Vastrakar, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Poonam Yadav
Squads
New Zealand Women
Sophie Devine (c), Amy Satterthwaite, Suzie Bates, Lauren Down, Maddy Green, Brooke Halliday, Hayley Jensen, Fran Jonas, Jess Kerr, Amelia Kerr, Frances Mackay, Rosemary Mair, Katey Martin, Hannah Rowe, Lea Tahuhu
India Women
Mithali Raj (c), Harmanpreet Kaur (VC), Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Verma, Yastika Bhatia, Deepti Sharma, Richa Ghosh (wk), Sneh Rana, Jhulan Goswami, Pooja Vastrakar, Meghna Singh, Renuka Singh Thakur, Taniya Bhatia (wk), Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Poonam Yadav.