India, Australia aim to fine-tune their prep for ODI World Cup

Can either team get better preparation than this in the lead-up to the ODI World Cup? India get to face the defending champions, while Australia get to play one of the tournament hosts and have a chance to acclimatise to the conditions well before other competing teams.

Having won nine of the 11 ODIs they have played this year and having beaten England in their backyard in July, India will carry a lot of confidence into this series. However, Australia can be a formidable opponent: they have beaten India in 12 out of the 13 ODIs since Harmanpreet Kaur's epic knock in the 2017 ODI World Cup semi-finals.

India were whitewashed 3-0 in the last two series they had played against Australia. Four out of the last five times they've met in an ICC tournament, India have lost, including the semi-final of last year's T20 World Cup. India will want to use this series not just as a dry run to get their team combination right but also to come up with plans to get past the Australia hurdle. If India win this series, they will enter the World Cup as favourites.

Australia, meanwhile, haven't played ODIs this year since January, when they wiped England out 3-0 in the Women's Ashes. The last tournament they played was the T20I series against New Zealand in March. But they have ten players who were also part of the 2022 ODI World Cup side in this squad, and have lost just three out of 28 matches they played since that tournament. So, they will back themselves to shake off the rust and hit the ground running. They will be playing in New Chandigarh, a non-World Cup venue, but they will benefit from some quality practice, specifically against spin in the middle overs, which is expected to play a big role in the ODI World Cup in India and Sri Lanka.

India WLWWW (last five matches, most recent first)
Australia WWWWW

A ruptured plantar fascia at the 2024 T20 World Cup, a knee injury during the WBBL, and a stress fracture in the right foot during the Women's Ashes. Australia captain Alyssa Healy has been dealing with recurring injuries since late last year which also affected her wicketkeeping. But she made a strong comeback for Australia A in the recent white-ball series against India A, making scores of 91 and 137 not out in the last two one-dayers and also keeping wicket, saying she made a few wicketkeeping 'tinkering' to avoid such injuries. A force for Australia in World Cups, she will hope to remain injury-free as she gears up for her first ODI World Cup as captain.

Offspinner Sneh Rana has been on a roll ever since her comeback into India's white-ball sides. A superb WPL season resulted in an ODI call-up, and she impressed immediately with 15 wickets in five games in the tri-series in Colombo in May. She followed that up with three wickets in the ODIs against England. With India expected to go spin-heavy for this series, and the World Cup that follows, Harmanpreet indicated during the squad announcement press conference that Rana will continue to be crucial in the middle overs.

With Renuka Singh back for the series from injury, she is expected to start ahead of Arundhati Reddy, who had played the ODIs against England, with Kranti Goud as the other fast bowler. India are also likely to go in with Rana, N Sree Charani and Deepti Sharma as spin options.

India (probable): 1 Pratika Rawal, 2 Smriti Mandhana, 3 Harleen Deol, 4 Harmanpreet Kaur (capt), 5 Jemimah Rodrigues, 6 Richa Ghosh (wk), 7 Deepti Sharma, 8 Sneh Rana, 9 N Shree Charani, 10 Kranti Goud, 11 Renuka Singh

Will Australia tinker with the XI that last played against England in January? Though left-arm spinner Sophie Molineux is back in the side after a lengthy injury lay-off, she has not been given the green light to play. Healy said Molineux wasn't "quite ready for the ODI format" and that Australia are "ready to have her back when she's ready to go" at the press conference on the eve of the first ODI.

Australia (probable): 1 Alyssa Healy (capt, wk), 2 Phoebe Litchfield, 3 Ellyse Perry, 4 Beth Mooney, 5 Annabel Sutherland, 6 Ash Gardner, 7 Tahlia McGrath, 8 Georgia Wareham, 9 Alana King, 10 Kim Garth, 11 Megan Schutt

This will be the first international fixture at the New Chandigarh stadium, which has hosted 11 IPL matches in the last two years, so the conditions are a bit of an unknown for both sides. The weather is expected to be a bit cloudy on Sunday, with the possibility of showers in the afternoon, and clear for the rest of the day.

"No doubt, they [Australia] have been very dominating. They have played well all over the world and dominated. But we are also at a stage where, as a captain, we have the belief we can beat them on any day. The processes in the last one and a half years has been good, we have improved quite a lot. Even in England, we beat one of their best sides. These show that we are on the right track."
India captain Harmanpreet Kaur on the Australia challenge

"This is the most stable Indian team I've seen and I think they're in a really good place heading into this World Cup, so I'm looking forward to that challenge. The rivalry continues to grow. I know how much they love beating Australia and I know how good they are in their home conditions and that's really a challenge for us. I think it's going to be a really enjoyable, hard-fought series."
Australia captain Alyssa Healy on facing India