Not far-off from these famed inexperienced paddy fields of Punjab, right here in the village of Mullanpur is the plush inexperienced outfield of the PCA Stadium. Yet one other spanking new Indian cricket floor is making its worldwide debut, on Sunday.
The stadium, which has been Punjab Kings’ house since final 12 months’s IPL, is the venue for the primary two matches of the ladies’s ODI collection between India and Australia. With the World Cup simply a fortnight away, these matches are a excellent costume rehearsal for the groups.
For Alyssa Healy’s ladies, it is a perfect alternative to play as a group after a pretty lengthy break. Their final worldwide match was in March, the T20 collection in New Zealand.
The Indians, although, have performed a lot of cricket lately. And they performed a lot of excellent cricket, too: in England, the place they gained each the ODI and T20I collection.
They are up in opposition to a a lot stronger opposition, although. These Aussie ladies are a bunch of world-beaters — Ellyse Perry, Beth Mooney, Ashleigh Gardner, Tahlia McGrath, Megan Schutt, Annabel Sutherland, Healy — who’ve been far too dominant. Like they had been in opposition to England earlier this 12 months, successful all of the three ODIs, three T20Is, and the one-off Test in the ladies’s Ashes Down Under.
With a number of of their stars having loads of the WPL expertise, they’re aware of the situations, too. They have additionally had some nice occasions in the bilateral collection in opposition to the Indians.
India’s final win in opposition to Australia in an ODI was 4 years in the past, at Mackay. The host might be actually eager to attain one other victory in opposition to this gifted side.
The class and expertise of captain Harmanpreet Kaur, Smriti Mandhana, Jemimah Rodrigues, Deepti Sharma, Radha Yadav, the promise of Kranti Goud and M. Shree Charani and the return of Renuka Singh give India causes to imagine.
The groups: India: Harmanpreet Kaur (Capt.), Smriti Mandhana, Pratika Rawal, Harleen Deol, Deepti Sharma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Richa Ghosh, Arundhati Reddy, Kranti Gaud, Sayali Satghare, Radha Yadav, Renuka Singh, M. Shree Charani, Sneh Rana and Uma Chetry.
Australia: Alyssa Healy (Capt.), Tahlia McGrath, Nicole Faltum, Ashleigh Gardner, Kim Garth, Grace Harris, Alana King, Charli Knott, Phoebe Litchfield, Sophie Molineux, Beth Mooney, Ellyse Perry, Megan Schutt, Annabel Sutherland, Georgia Voll and Georgia Wareham.