Toss Pakistan chose to bat vs India
Maroof hoped her side could put up a formidable total and defend later on a surface she described as dry. They were spin heavy, fielding as many as three frontline options in Nida Dar, Nashra Sandhu and Sadia Iqbal.
India too were spin heavy, fielding three frontline spinners in Deepti Sharma, Radha Yadav and Rajeshwari Gayakwad. This meant there was no place for the experienced Shikha Pandey, who made her international comeback after 18 months during the recently-concluded tri-series involving South Africa and West Indies. India’s pace attack will be spearheaded by Renuka Singh, with allrounder Pooja Vastrakar lining up as the second seam option.
Two of Pakistan’s three wins against India in a women’s world event have come at the T20 World Cup – Colombo (2012) and New Delhi (2016). Pakistan beat India in their latest outing at the Asia Cup in Bangladesh in September.
India: 1 Shafali Verma, 2 Yastika Bhatia, 3 Jemimah Rodrigues, 4 Harleen Deol, 5 Harmanpreet Kaur (capt), 6 Richa Ghosh (wk), 7 Deepti Sharma, 8 Pooja Vastrakar, 9 Radha Yadav, 10 Rajeshwari Gayakwad, 11 Renuka Singh
Pakistan: 1 Javeria Khan, 2 Muneeba Ali (wk), 3 Bismah Maroof (capt), 4 Nida Dar, 5 Sidra Ameen, 6 Aliya Riaz, 7 Ayesha Naseem, 8 Fatima Sana, 9 Aiman Anwer, 10 Nashra Sandhu, 11 Sadia Iqbal