The Indian women's cricket team is set to take on arch-rivals Pakistan in their opening match of the Women's Asia Cup 2024 in Dambulla on Friday, July 19. Both teams will look to make a great start to the ninth season of the tournament in Sri Lanka. The women's team, led by Harmanpreet Kaur, are the defending champions and have won the tournament a record seven times. India have been placed in Group A along with Pakistan, UAE and Nepal and the top two teams will qualify directly for the semi-finals.
A close contest is expected
The Pakistan women's team has registered only three wins in 14 T20 International matches played against India, but when the two teams faced each other in the 2022 season of the tournament, they registered a thrilling 13-run win. In such a situation, the Indian women's team will not make the mistake of taking them lightly in this match. However, the Indian team looks much stronger than Pakistan. So let's take a look at the pitch report before the start of this match.
IND-W vs PAK-W Dambulla Pitch Report
The pitch of Rangiri Dambulla International Stadium is considered balanced in T20 cricket. The pitch gives good help to spin bowlers, but batsmen can be expected to dominate the new ball. The average first innings score here is 159, with teams winning four out of six T20 matches played in Dambulla. In such a situation, the captain who wins the toss in this match can decide to bat first.
India and Pakistan Squad for Asia Cup 2024
India Women's Squad: Harmanpreet Kaur (captain), Smriti Mandhana (vice-captain), Shafali Verma, Deepti Sharma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Richa Ghosh (wicketkeeper), Uma Chhetri (wicketkeeper), Pooja Vastrakar, Arundhati Reddy, Renuka Singh Thakur, Dayalan Hemalatha, Asha Shobhana, Radha Yadav, Shreyanka Patil, Sajna Sajeevan – Traveling Reserves: Shweta Sehrawat, Saiqa Ishak, Tanuja Kanwer, Meghna Singh
Pakistan Women's Team: Nida Dar (captain), Iram Javed, Sadia Iqbal, Aliya Riaz, Diana Baig, Fatima Sana, Gul Feroza, Muniba Ali, Sidra Amin, Naziha Alvi, Syeda Arub Shah, Nashra Sundhu, Tasmia Rubab, Omaima Sohail, Tooba Hassan
