MUMBAI: Having suffered a six-wicket loss to Australia in the first ODI at the
Wankhede Stadium
on Thursday,
India women
will be boosted by the return of vice-captain
Smriti Mandhana
for the second game on Saturday as they look to stay alive in the series.
After she played an instrumental role with scores of 74 & 38* in India's historic eight-wicket Test win over Australia last week at the same venue, Mandhana missed the first ODI as she was unwell. Despite her absence, the hosts made their highest-ever total of 282/8 against Australia, but were hammered as the rival batters made light of the target on a flat pitch.
While Mandhana is set to add muscle to the top-order, India would be hoping that ace middle-order batter
Jemimah Rodrigues
, who top-scored with a superb 82, but could not come out to field as she struggled with dehydration, recovers in time for the second match.
With just a day's gap separating the games, India's primary focus will be to recover as fast as possible. "Recovery is very important. We played a Test match and in a couple of days' time, we are playing One-day cricket. We will need the girls to be fresh and our team is working on that," India's fielding coach Munish Bali said on Thursday.
He acknowledged that India must improve their fielding and bowling, though he pointed out that the team was playing an ODI after a long time.
Even though India have made strides as a team, they have been unable to improve their embarrassing ODI record against Australia. Thursday's loss was India's 41st in 51 ODIs against the Aussies. Strangely, India have a bad record against the seven-time world champions even at home, managing only four wins while suffering 17 defeats. In fact, Australia have won their last eight ODIs against India in India since February 2007.
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