Women’s T20 World Cup 2023: Harmanpreet Kaur is set to play in the match against Pakistan, but Smriti Mandhana is yet to recover from a finger injury.

Women’s T20 WC: Harmanpreet confirmed to play vs Pakistan, Mandhana likely to miss out. Courtesy: PTI

By India Today Web Desk: Stand-in head coach Hrishikesh Kaniktar confirmed that Harmanpreet Kaur would be a part of India’s first match of the Women’s T20 World Cup 2023 against Pakistan, to be played on Sunday, February 12 at the Newlands in Cape Town.

Harmanpreet sustained a back injury in the final of the T20I tri-series against South Africa. After the match at Buffalo Park in East London, Kaur said that taking a rest would help her recover in time.

However, India are likely to miss out on the services of Smriti Mandhana, who injured her finger during the warm-up match against Meg Lanning’s Australia.

“Harman is fit to play. She has batted for the last two days in the nets, she is fine. 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,” Kanitkar was quoted as saying in the pre-match press conference.

In Smriti’s absence, left-handed batter Yastika Bhatia is most likely to open the batting alongside the swashbuckling Shafali Verma.

“You want to be playing the strong teams, the arch-rivals if you can call them that. Few of them have done it in the past, few haven’t. We are totally prepared for what happens, the atmosphere is good.

“Most of them have played Pakistan in the past, they know what can happen and what the atmosphere is like. One of the privileges of playing international cricket is you play matches like these. Everyone is looking forward to it,” he stated.

Kanitkar was also of the opinion that spinners would have their say in the high-voltage match. “Spinners will have a role to play,” Kanitkar added.

Deepti Sharma, Radha Yadav and Rajeshwari Gayakwad are the three frontline spinners India have in their lineup.