3 weaknesses India Women will look to strengthen in tri-series ahead of Women's T20 World Cup

India Women will take on South Africa Women and West Indies Women in a triangular series, beginning at Buffalo Park in East London on Thursday, January 19.

The three teams will use this series as a dress rehearsal as they prepare for the ICC Women's T20 World Cup 2023, scheduled to commence next month. They will use it to fine-tune their team lineup and become familiar with the conditions in South Africa.

A total of seven matches will be played in the tournament as part of the tri-series, with each side facing the other two sides twice in the round-robin stage. The top two teams will then meet in the final on February 2. All the games, including the final, will be held at Buffalo Park in East London.

India Women will miss the services of the big-hitting duo of Shafali Verma and Richa Ghosh, who are competing in the U-19 Women’s World Cup.

---

India Women’s Squad for the Tri-series: Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Smriti Mandhana (vc), Yastika Bhatia (wk), Jemimah Rodrigues, Harleen Deol, Deepti Sharma, Devika Vaidya, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Radha Yadav, Renuka Thakur, Meghna Singh, Shushma Verma (wk), Anjali Sharvani, Amanjot Kaur, Pooja Vastrakar, Sabbhineni Meghana, Sneh Rana, and Shikha Pandey.

---

However, there are some issues India Women need to resolve in this tournament before going into the World Cup. This tri-series will be the perfect tournament for that.

---

#1 India Women's pace bowling woes

Since veteran Jhulan Goswami retired from international cricket, India's young and relatively inexperienced pace department has struggled. This resulted in the unexpected inclusion of experienced pacer Shikha Pandey into the team after nearly 15 months. She last played an international match in October 2021.

India will rely on Pandey's experience and form in the T20 World Cup. The 33-year-old, whose strength is to trouble batters with her swing bowling, gets into her groove quickly and spearheads the pace unit.

Renuka Singh, the team's go-to bowler over the last six months, and rookie left-arm pacer Anjali Sarvani have been good but in patches. Renuka, who has been performing exceptionally well, lacks able support from the other bowlers.

The pitches in South Africa will assist pacers, and India will be looking for a more consistent performance from their pace attack.

---

#2 Focus on Indian women's batting

India will miss the services of Shafali Verma and Richa Ghosh, who are currently playing in the ICC Women's U19 World Cup. Their absence will lead to a void in the batting line-up, which already has its own issues. But team management will look at this as an opportunity to test other players.

Sabbhineni Meghana is likely to open in place of Shafali alongside Smriti Mandhana, while Yastika will most likely don the wicketkeeper’s gloves.

Indian Women will also want Jemimah Rodrigues to find her mojo back before the mega event. She has been out of her element after the Commonwealth Games last year, where India won the silver medal after losing to Australia in the gold medal match.

Indian Women have found a much-needed finisher in young Richa, but in her absence, skipper Harmanpreet will have to do the bulk of the finishing duties, and she will be hoping for more support from the middle order.

India Women have a lot of work to do in the batting department. Not only has the strike rotation been a huge issue for them, but their dot ball percentage will also be worrying the think tank.

While the boundary count has increased, the Indian Women batters have consumed way too many deliveries against Australia in the recent series.

---

#3 Rustiness in players

Fast bowling all-rounder Pooja Vastrakar returns to the Indian Women's squad after missing the Australian series due to injury.

The tri-series will provide crucial game time for her to shake off the rust after her injury layoff ahead of the T20 World Cup. She is an important cog in India's scheme of things with both the bat and the ball.

Meanwhile, Sneh Rana, who is making a comeback to the team, would like to get some quality game time and have an impactful T20 World Cup for the team.