Batting key to India’s Cup title hopes

In the latest of a series building up to the women’s Cricket World Cup, Ian Anderson looks at India.

If India win the World Cup, expect them to do it in high-scoring fashion.

The squad, which begins its campaign against Pakistan in Mount Maunganui on Sunday, is full of batters capable of taking apart the world’s best attacks.

Smriti Mandhana, veteran skipper Mithali Raj, vice-captain Harmanpreet Kaur, young opener Shafali Verma and allrounder Deepti Sharma will head the charge with the bat.

And while there is bowling ability there in veteran seamer Jhulan Goswami, youngster Meghna Singh and spinners Sharma, Sneh Rana and Poonam Yadav, the Ramesh Powarcoached team is likely to need to accumulate big totals to win key group stage matches against the likes of fellow lastfour contenders England, New Zealand and South Africa.

A major concern for Raj is the fielding

– both catching and ground fielding have been sub-standard since arriving in New Zealand and will place added pressure on the side.

Recent form

New Zealand handed them a surprise 4-1 defeat in their ODI series in Queenstown, which saw bookmakers lengthen their odds to win the tournament. That may be an over-reaction, with the tourists coming out of MIQ and not fielding close to their best XI until the final game, which they won.

However, they haven’t won an ODI series in a year, with defeats to South Africa, England and Australia.

Balancing that is they have played all the top sides in the world building up to the World Cup and have shown that they can still pull off notable victories when at their best, including a thrilling win to end Australia’s world record streak of 26 ODI successes in Mackay last September.

One to watch

Smriti Mandhana retiring hurt after being struck on the helmet in Sunday’s warm-up game against South Africa would have caused a tremor in the camp.

The left-handed batter has been cleared to play a full role in the tournament after a Shabnim Ismail bouncer ruled her out of the rest of the match and is a key member of a powerful batting lineup.