In the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup opener at Sydney between hosts Australia and India, Australia Women have opted to bowl first. Both these sides had met in the tri-series final recently and are favourites to win the world title.
The match is easily the most anticipated match of the Australian season post arguably an unprecedented hype and build up to a women world tournament in cricket.
“We’re not sure about the conditions so we want to bowl first. Potentially some weather around but nothing too major. Molly Strano comes straight into the team so hopefully, she can do well,” Australian skipper Meg Lanning said at the toss as quoted by ESPNCricinfo.
Meanwhile, Indian skipper Harmanpreet Kaur said, “I definitely wanted to bowl but the toss is not in your hands so we just want to play good cricket. We are playing three spinners. We are getting a lot of support from all India supporters.”
Here are the Playing XIs of both the teams:
Australia: Alyssa Healy (wk), Beth Mooney, Ashleigh Gardner, Meg Lanning (c), Ellyse Perry, Rachael Haynes, Annabel Sutherland, Jess Jonassen, Delissa Kimmince, Molly Strano, Megan Schutt
India: Shafali Verma, Smriti Mandhana, Jemimah Rodrigues, Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Deepti Sharma, Veda Krishnamurthy, Shikha Pandey, Taniya Bhatia (wk), Arundhati Reddy, Poonam Yadav, Rajeshwari Gayakwad