Harmanpreet and Co take on NZ in solitary T20I

The Indian women’s cricket team will get to fine tune its ODI World Cup preparations in a six-game limited overs series against hosts New Zealand, beginning with the one-off T20 here on Wednesday. The one off T20 is scheduled ahead of the five ODIs starting February 12. Though the team will be looking to win, it will also be approaching the 20-over game to get used to the conditions with the bigger goal for World Cup in mind.

ODI skipper Mithali Raj, who won’t be playing the T20, said on Tuesday all the six games will be used to figure out their core players who will feature in the ICC event in March-April.

T20 skipper Harmanpreet Kaur, who ended her lean run with the bat with a successful Women’s Big Bash League, will look to lead from the front on Wednesday.

“We are here to use this series as preparation for the World Cup because it is the best way we get to know about the wickets and composition we will have next month. We want to put in the our best standard of cricket so the team derives a lot of confidence when get into the World Cup,” Mithali said.

Mithali welcomes addition of sports psychologist

India ODI captain Mithali Raj says the team is benefitting immensely from the presence of a sports psychologist during its ongoing tour of New Zealand and such professional help is the need of the hour in COVID times. (Agencies)

Squads:

India: Harmanpreet Kaur, Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Verma, Yastika Bhatia, Deepti Sharma, Richa Ghosh, Sneh Rana, Pooja Vastrakar, Meghna Singh, Renuka Singh, Taniya Bhatia, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Poonam Yadav, Ekta Bisht, Simran Bahadur, Sabbhineni Meghana

New Zealand: Sophie Devine (captain), Amy Satterthwaite(vc), Suzie Bates, Lauren Down, Maddy Green, Brooke Halliday, Hayley Jensen, Fran Jonas, Jess Kerr, Melie Kerr, Frankie Mackay, Rosemary Mair, Katey Martin, Hannah Rowe, Lea Tahuhu