Toss Pakistan chose to bat vs India
Both teams made one change apiece owing to injuries. Diana Baig pulled up with what seemed like a calf injury against Sri Lanka, and was replaced by legspinner Syeda Aroob Shah. As a result, they have Sana and Aliya Riaz to rely on for seam bowling with as many as six spinners in the XI.
For India, Pooja Vastrakar had a niggle and hence, S Sajana was brought in the XI. The move slightly lengthens their batting but at the cost of a seam bowler. Sajana rose to prominence with a last-ball six for Mumbai Indians in the WPL 2024 opener.
The weather was 37 degrees and the fresh pitch the match was going to be played on was almost equidistant from the square boundaries – 61m and 60m either sides. The longest hit was straight down the ground, with 73m.
India: 1 Smriti Mandhana, 2 Shafali Verma, 3 Harmanpreet Kaur (capt), 4 Jemimah Rodrigues, 5 Richa Ghosh (wk), 6 Deepti Sharma, 7 S Sajana, 8 Arundhati Reddy, 9 Shreyanka Patil, 10 Asha Sobhana, 11 Renuka Singh
Pakistan: 1 Muneeba Ali (wk), 2 Gull Feroza, 3 Sidra Amin, 4 Omaima Sohail, 5 Nida Dar, 6 Tuba Hassan, 7 Fatima Sana (capt), 8 Aliya Riaz, 9 Syeda Aroob Shah, 10 Nashra Sandhu, 11 Sadiq Iqbal
S Sudarshanan is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo. @Sudarshanan7
Source: ESPN Crickinfo