India Women's ready for the Asia cup challenge

Can India W retain the Asia cup?

Women's Asia cup is starting from tomorrow with 8 teams participating in it. India W the defending champions are one of the favourites to win the cup yet again and they will start their campaign tomorrow i.e 19th july against Pakistan W. Previously, India W won the Asia cup 3 times 2012, 2016 and 2022. India W recently played 3 T20i's against SA W, which ended up (1-1). We saw some exceptional performance from Indian players which will eventually help gain success in the Asia cup as well as the upcoming  T20i world cup this year. Let's see some comprehensive analysis of Indian W team.

Strongest 11 for the 1st match against Pakistan

1) Smriti Mandhana

2) Shafali Verma

3) Jemimah Rodrigues

4) Harmanpreet Kaur (C)

5) Richa Ghosh

6) Deepti Sharma

7) Sanjana Sanjeevan

8) Pooja Vastrakar

9) Radha Yadav

10) Shreyanka Patil

11) Renuka Thakur

Strength: Batting is one of the strong zone for Indian W. Before the introduction of WPL Indians were lacking power hitters who can accelerate quickly. Adding power hitters like Sanjana and Hemalatha in the team gives the top and middle order license to go big from the very first over. WPL created a fearless approach which was lacking previously. With the team mentioned above India W can have batting till no. 10 without affecting the bowling. Smriti is in great form recently, she is expected to give a fierce start to the team.

In fast bowling department you can blindly trust Renuka Singh Thakur and Pooja vastrakar. They can give you quick wickets in the powerplay itself. In middle overs you have 3 spinners to operate the game. As the venue is Sri Lanka you might think that spinners will get a lot of help here, but the match against pak W is in Rangiri Dambulla International Stadium which is historically batting friendly ground. Still the quality if our spinners will be helpful to keep the score of the opposition within limit. And if anything goes wrong in the bowling you have a 6th bowling option 'Sanjana Sanjeevan'. 

The team is looking evenly balanced which will create an opportunity to outperform the opposition completely from the game.

Weakness: The only weakness I can see here is getting the right team combination and fielding. Fielding is a concerning factor while you are participating in 2 of the major T20i tournaments. Even though we have already improved a lot but there's still a long way to go. Munish Bali (Fielding Coach) has done enough in the past and still doing it to make sure India W win because of their brilliant fielding.

Opportunities: There's so much young talent in the team, all because of WPL. This will help you get a clear picture before the mega event that is, the T20i World cup.

Threats: Injury has always been a concern for all sports. There's always a threat to the management that some player might injure herself. Also, some of the Indian players have played less number of matches, so this may create a situation where the youngsters are clueless about their role.

My predictions for Ind W vs Pak W match:

1) It will be a batting friendly pitch, team winning the toss should bat 1st but if there's a chance of dew in the later half of the game team would prefer to bat 2nd.

2) Pacers will get some help of the pitch. Expecting Renuka Thakur to get atleast 2 wickets.

3) Slower balls will be effective as the dimensions for the stadium is big.

4) Pitch might get tougher as the game proceed

5) India to win the match

Thank You,

Advait Kadam 

(Sports management student)