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Big picture – A test of batting depth
To be fair, Mandhana and Shafali Verma have also batted in perhaps the best phase of the match. On the evidence of the first seven matches, the new ball comes nicely onto the bat before the spinners take charge. Even then, the chasm between India’s openers and the rest tells a story: Mandhana has 143 runs, Shafali 92 and the next best is Pratika Rawal with 32. India would want to iron out the creases in their middle order before reaching the crunch stage.
If Pakistan can replicate a semblance of those performances against India in Dubai on Saturday evening, it could set them on course for only their second win over their arch-rivals in the T20 Asia Cup.
Form guide
India WWLWL (last five completed matches, most recent first)
Pakistan WWLLW
In the spotlight – Prema Rawat and Nashra Sandhu
Team news
Both teams have close-to-ideal combinations for the conditions in Dubai. So expect them to field the same XIs, barring any injuries.
India (probable): 1 Smriti Mandhana, 2 Shafali Verma, 3 Pratika Rawal, 4 Harmanpreet Kaur (capt), 5 Richa Ghosh (wk), 6 Bharti Fulmali, 7 Deepti Sharma, 8 Prema Rawat, 9 Kranti Gaud, 10 N Shree Charani, 11 Nandani Sharma
Pakistan (probable): 1 Muneeba Ali (wk), 2 Shawaal Zulfiqar, 3 Gull Feroza, 4 Ayesha Zafar, 5 Sadaf Shamas, 6 Fatima Sana (capt), 7 Umm-e-Hani, 8 Eyman Fatima, 9 Tuba Hassan, 10 Nashra Sandhu, 11 Sadia Iqbal
Pitch and conditions
Teams winning the toss at this Asia Cup opted to chase in six of the first seven matches, with only Sri Lanka winning after restricting UAE to 78. The general pattern has been of teams batting first racing away to a strong start, and then slowing down towards the finish. Only India have posted totals in excess of 150 in this tournament. Spinners have had more success (71 wickets, economy 5.1) than quicks (31 wickets, economy 6.18). Thus, the captain winning the toss might have a tricky choice to make on Saturday.
Evenings in Dubai have been pretty hot and humid with Mandhana calling it a “steam box”. Saturday evening is expected to be similar with a high of 37 degrees around start time with the temperature expected to fall only marginally thereafter.
Stats and trivia
- This match will be Harmanpreet Kaur’s 150th T20I as captain. No other man or woman has led in as many T20Is.
- Smriti Mandhana is 78 away from surpassing Suzie Bates (4758) for most T20I runs.
- Muneeba Ali is two matches shy of becoming the sixth Pakistan woman to play 100 T20Is. She is also 31 runs away from scoring the most T20I runs for Pakistan in a calendar year.
- India have lost only once to Pakistan at the T20 Asia Cup in seven meetings – in Sylhet in 2022.
Quotes
“Charani is a very good talent. She is ranked No. 1 as well. In the last one year, she has performed well. The way she gets the ball to turn is unbelievable. It is not easy for any batter to play that.”
India allrounder Deepti Sharma heaps praise on N Shree Charani
“Fielding is an aspect on which we have been focusing deeply. Our mentor [Wahab Riaz] has also told us that there should be no compromise on our fielding standards. [Good] fielding can win you matches and hopefully we wouldn’t drop any catches and field well in the match.”
Pakistan batter Ayesha Zafar
S Sudarshanan is a sub-editor at Cricinfo. @Sudarshanan7
