Bangladesh chose to bat vs India
Nigar Sultana, the Bangladesh captain, called correctly and elected to bat first in a bid to apply scoreboard pressure of India in a knockout game, the first semi-final of the 2024 Women’s Asia Cup in Dambulla.
They made one change from their 114-run win over Malaysia, with fast bowler Marufa Akter replacing Sabikun Jesmin. It meant Marufa will partner the experienced seamer Jahanara Alam; Bangladesh have changed their template to play two specialist seamers along with their battery of spinners.
India made a slightly left-field move, by deciding to blood young wicketkeeper-batter Uma Chetry as a specialist batter. She replaces D Hemalatha, who received an extended run at No. 3 without that one big impact score in 10 innings since her international comeback in April.
The other change in the pace department was more straightforward. Pooja Vastrakar, who was rested for India’s final group fixture against Nepal, returned in place of Arundhati Reddy. The make-up of India’s spin attack was unchanged with Tanuja Kanwar, the left-arm spinner, retaining her spot. Kanwar was named as a replacement for the injured Shreyanka Patil after the tournament opener against Pakistan.
Harmanpreet also returned after a rest, having missed India’s previous group game. She replaced S Sajana.
Bangladesh will hope to channel some happy memories from the 2018 Asia Cup final, when they beat India. The more-recent outings in Bangladesh in April went in convincingly in India’s favour as they swept the T20I series 5-0.
India: 1 Smriti Mandhana, 2 Shafali Verma, Uma Chetry, 4 Harmanpreet Kaur (capt), 5 Jemimah Rodrigues, 6 Richa Ghosh (wk), 7 Deepti Sharma, 8 Pooja Vastrakar, 9 Radha Yadav, 10 Tanuja Kanwar, 11 Renuka Singh
Bangladesh: 1 Dilara Akter, 2 Murshida Khatun, 3 Nigar Sultana (capt, wk), 4 Rumana Ahmed, 5 Ishma Tanjim, 6 Ritu Moni, 7 Rabeya Khatun, 8 Shorna Akter, 9 Nahida Akter, 10 Jahanara Alam, 11 Marufa Akter
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