Women’s T20 WC: Bharti included as India elect to bat against Pakistan

Birmingham, June 14 (IANS) India have included Bharti Fulmali while Yastika Bhatia has been left out as skipper Harmanpreet Kaur won the toss and elected to bat first against Pakistan in their first Group A clash of the 2026 Women’s T20 World Cup at Edgbaston on Sunday. Just like the previous meetings between the two teams, no handshake happened between the captains at the toss.

India arrives in the 12-team tournament after winning the 2025 Women’s ODI World Cup on home soil, though their recent T20I form has been mixed. After winning the toss in her tenth T20 World Cup appearance, Harmanpreet said India are going with three spinners and two medium pacers.

“I think it’s a pretty good pitch to bat on, so we just thought let’s bat and put a decent total on the board. Well, I think we all are really excited. The last World Cup definitely gave us a lot of confidence and we just want to carry that confidence to this World Cup.

“Yes, definitely. We have played a lot of games and now it’s only about playing good cricket and we are looking forward to that. Yastika did really well, but today we thought of going with the Bharti,” she said.

Pakistan captain Fatima Sana said Saira Jabeen has been included in their playing eleven in what is also her first T20 World Cup game. “I think if we had won the toss, we were going to bat first because it looked like a batting track. As a team, we are doing great in the batting and bowling as well.

“So we know we have a good bowling unit, so we just need to improve in the batting side, so we are good to go. Obviously, it looks like a batting track, but still, we have a good bowling unit. We have a good and experienced bowling attack, so I think it will be a good contest,” she said.

Playing XIs:

India: Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Verma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Harmanpreet Kaur (captain), Richa Ghosh (wk), Deepti Sharma, Bharti Fulmali, N Sree Charani, Kranti Gaud, Shreyanka Patil and Arundhati Reddy

Pakistan: Gull Feroza, Muneeba Ali Siddiqui (wk), Ayesha Zafar, Saira Jabeen, Aliya Riaz, Natalia Pervaiz, Fatima Sana (captain), Rameen Shamim, Nashra Sandhu, Tasmia Rubab, and Sadia Iqbal

–IANS

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