Women's cricket: India and New Zealand aiming for upward ICC Women’s Championship movement

India aims to rise in ICC women’s rankings

India and New Zealand will aim to boost their standings when they go head to head in round three of the ICC Women’s Championship, which starts in Bangalore on Sunday.

The series includes five ODIs but only the first three matches scheduled for 28 June, 1 and 3 July will count towards the eight-team ICC Women’s Championship. The top four sides from this tournament will qualify automatically for the ICC Women’s World Cup 2017, while the bottom four sides will play in the ICC Women’s World Cup Qualifier.

India is currently rooted to the bottom of the table on three points, with the White Ferns a point and a place ahead in seventh. A 3-0 series victory for the visitors would see it move to joint third place alongside the West Indies, while a 2-1 win would see both sides rise up the table; New Zealand into joint fourth while India would leapfrog Sri Lanka.

India knows that it can rise to fourth place on nine points, above Pakistan, with a clean sweep in the series.

Looking ahead to the three-match ODI series, India captain Mithali Raj said: “This series of games is vitally important as we bid to improve our standing in the Women’s Championship, and we know that we will be facing a well-drilled and talented New Zealand side. Our preparation has been good and there’s a positive feeling in the squad that we can turn around our form and get the win. If we can execute our game-plan and play a consistent brand of attacking cricket, then we are confident that we can cause the White Ferns some problems.

“There are some new faces in the squad and we believe that they will supplement our squad for this series and going forward as well. There’s a huge incentive for teams to perform well in this series and we’re focused on the task at hand. We’re excited to be playing at home and are hopeful that we can count on a strong following in Bangalore.”

White Ferns captain Suzie Bates said: “We’re really excited to be playing in India, and with it being a home series for them, they will be tough especially in their own conditions. Last year we learned from going over to the West Indies after our winter and not having as much preparation as we would have liked. It’s great that New Zealand Cricket have supported us by sending us over a week or so earlier to get out in the middle and bat in those conditions.

“It’s really different coming from batting indoors to batting on grass, so we’re exciting about getting the few days training under our belt as a team. We know that the (ICC Women’s Championship) points come in the first three games, but we also want to win the five-match series. Winning the first three games is massive for qualification for (the ICC Women’s World Cup in) 2017 and those are the three games that the team want to win and win well. That's why we want to hit the ground running in these seven to 10 days beforehand so we're not playing catch up.”

Meanwhile, India will look to Jhulan Goswami who is currently the top ranked bowler in the Reliance ICC Women’s ODI Player Rankings for Bowlers as it bids to improve its ranking heading into the series. The medium-pace bowler has been in fine form of late in the competition and is also the highest ranked all-rounder in the Reliance ICC Women’s ODI Player Rankings for All-rounders where she lies in fifth place on 233 points, three adrift of South Africa’s Marizanne Kapp. For New Zealand, Morna Nielsen (14th) is her side’s highest ranked bowler.

In the Reliance ICC Women’s ODI Player Rankings for Batters, sixth place White Ferns skipper Suzie Bates is the leading batter on her side and she will have her opposite number Mithali Raj (in fourth place on 680 points) and Harmanpreet Kaur (fifth place on 678 points) in her sights. New Zealand has two further batters inside the top 20; Amy Satterthwaite (14th) and Rachel Priest (17th).

Squads

India : Mithali Raj (captain), Ekta Bisht, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Jhulan Goswami, Harmanpreet Kaur, Veda Krishnamurthy, Smriti Mandhana, Niranjana Nagarajan, Shikha Pandey, Kalpana R, Sneh Rana, Poonam Raut, Deepti Sharma, M.D. Thirushkamini, Poonam Yadav

New Zealand: Suzie Bates (captain), Kate Broadmore, Sophie Devine, Natalie Dodd, Maddy Green, Georgia Guy, Leigh Kasperek, Morna Nielsen, Katie Perkins, Anna Peterson, Rachel Priest, Hannah Rowe, Amy Satterthwaite, Lea Tahuhu