With Snehal Pradhan’s help, we pick the fantasy XI for the India v Sri Lanka T20 World Cup game (7:47)
February 29: India v Sri Lanka at the Junction Oval, Melbourne
Our XI: Anushka Sanjeewani, Harmanpreet Kaur, Shafali Verma, Chamari Atapattu, Smriti Mandhana, Shashikala Siriwardene, Taniya Bhatia, Deepti Sharma, Udeshika Prabodhani, Shikha Pandey, Poonam Yadav
Captain: Chamari Atapattu
There are very few batters in the women’s game who hit the ball harder than Atapattu does. She has been in excellent form as well, scoring 91 runs in the 2 innings so far. She will look to bat longer against India, and if she does, she could score heavily.
Vice Captain: Shafali Verma
Verma has got back-to-back player of the match awards in the last two games. She has scored 114 runs in 3 innings at a strike-rate of 172.72. Although she has got starts in all 3 games, she hasn’t scored a fifty yet. We are backing her to score one in this game.
Hot Picks
Harmanpreet Kaur
Kaur has had an ordinary World cup with the bat so far. But you cannot ignore her against the Sri Lanka. She will be eager to get a score before going into the semi-finals. Kaur has scored 218 runs against this opposition at an average of 24.22 and a strike-rate of 112.95 in T20Is and her first target will be get close to her average.
Shikha Pandey
Pandey has had a terrific World Cup so far. She is currently the second highest wicket taker with 6 wickets. She has been extremely effective with the new ball as well as in the death overs. Her economy in this tournament is a brilliant 4.14 and her strike-rate 11.8. She has effectively picked up a wicket every 2 overs in the tournament so far.
Shashikala Siriwardene
Siriwardene is one of the more experienced campaigners in the Sri Lanka team. Her wily off spin bowling and lower order batting are both assets to the team. Since 2018, she has picked up 5 wickets against India at an economy of 5.88. Smriti Mandhana vs Siriwardene could be a contest to watch out for.
Value Picks
Anushka Sanjeewani
The Sri Lanka wicketkeeper has got scores of 15 and 25 in the two games so far. She has got herself in and then got out, but if she gets set again, she could get a bigger score and fetch you useful points. Combine that with her wicketkeeping points and that makes her a value pick.
Taniya Bhatia
With the Indian bowlers, particularly the spinners in good form, Bhatia will be a valuable pick as a keeper itself. But as she has been batting in the top order the last two games, she could get you some runs as well. She scored a 25-ball 23 against New Zealand, and against a comparatively weaker Sri Lanka bowling line-up, she could be more than handy.
Points to note
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Sri Lanka have not beaten India in T20Is since 24 March, 2014.
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Since no Indian batter has scored a fifty so far in the tournament, it makes more sense to have more players from India and have Atapattu as the captain.
Source: ESPN Crickinfo