SPORTS NEWS: Women’s Asia Cup; Renuka, Hemalatha, Richa come in as Pakistan elect to bat first against India
Dambulla, July 19 (IANS/WISHAVWARTA) Renuka Singh Thakur, Richa Ghosh, and Dayalan Hemalatha come into India’s playing eleven as Pakistan won the toss and elected to bat first in the 2024 Women’s Asia Cup match at the Rangiri Dambulla International Cricket Stadium on Friday. India came into the tournament as the defending champions, and have won the competition seven times. They also have an 11-3 lead over Pakistan in women’s T20I meetings. In terms of Asia Cup meetings, India have won five of their six games against Pakistan, who emerged victorious in the last meeting in 2022. “For us, anything was okay because the conditions would be the same for both innings. Now we have a chance to restrict them to a small total. We want to get into the rhythm from the first game,” said captain Harmanpreet Kaur. Pakistan captain Nida Dar said, “Looks like a dry wicket. We have practiced and trained a lot in Karachi, and we are well prepared for this contest. It is a great opportunity ahead of the T20 World Cup. We have a good combination and bowlers and batters and hoping for a good game.” Playing XIs: India: Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Verma, Dayalan Hemalatha, Jemimah Rodrigues, Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Richa Ghosh (wk), Deepti Sharma, Pooja Vastrakar, Radha Yadav, Shreyanka Patil and Renuka Singh Thakur Pakistan: Sidra Amin, Gull Feroza, Muneeba Ali (wk), Nida Dar (c), Aliya Riaz, Iram Javed, Fatima Sana, Tuba Hassan, Sadia Iqbal, Nashra Sandhu and Syeda Aroob Shah —
