Smriti Mandhana to miss India's opening game against Pakistan
Smriti Mandhana injured her finger during warm-up game vs Australia (Source: Twitter)
In a major setback to the Indian Women's cricket team, star batswoman Smriti Mandhana has been ruled out of the opening game of the T20 World Cup against Pakistan. Harmanpreet Kaur’s troops are set to take on the Women in Green on Sunday, February 12 in Cape Town.
Mandhana suffered a left middle finger injury during a warm-up match against Australia and was forced to sit out of the subsequent game against Bangladesh.
Although the absence of Mandhana is a considerable blow to the Indian squad, it appears that the injury is not as severe as feared, as stand-in coach Hrishikesh Kanitkar has confirmed that there is no fracture. This bodes well for the future, as Mandhana is expected to be back in action from India's second match against West Indies on February 15.
“Smriti has a finger injury and is still recovering, so she won't play most-likely. It's not a fracture and we're hopeful she will be available from the second game onwards."
With Mandhana on the sidelines, the onus now falls on the young guns Shafali Verma and Yastika Bhatia to rise to the occasion and get India off to a flying start. The middle order will also need to pull out all the stops and bring their wealth of experience to the table to subdue a Pakistan side known for causing upsets.
All in all, it remains to be seen how India will cope with this latest hurdle, but one thing is for certain that the game against Pakistan promises to be an intriguing contest with plenty of twists and turns.
 "Jatin")
