Women in Blue meet a formidable Australian side

Not far away from those famed green paddy fields of Punjab, here in the village of Mullanpur is the lush green outfield of the PCA Stadium. Yet another spanking new Indian cricket ground is making its international debut, on Sunday.

The stadium, which has been Punjab Kings’ home since last year’s IPL, is the venue for the first two matches of the women’s ODI series between India and Australia. With the World Cup just a fortnight away, these matches are a perfect dress rehearsal for the teams.

For Alyssa Healy’s women, it is an ideal opportunity to play as a group after a fairly long break. Their last international match was in March, the T20 series in New Zealand.

The Indians, though, have played a lot of cricket recently. And they played a lot of good cricket, too: in England, where they won both the ODI and T20I series.

They are up against a much stronger opposition, though. These Aussie women are a bunch of world-beaters — Ellyse Perry, Beth Mooney, Ashleigh Gardner, Tahlia McGrath, Megan Schutt, Annabel Sutherland, Healy — who have been far too dominant. Like they were against England earlier this year, winning all the three ODIs, three T20Is, and the one-off Test in the women’s Ashes Down Under.

With several of their stars having plenty of the WPL experience, they are familiar with the conditions, too. They have also had some great times in the bilateral series against the Indians.

India’s last win against Australia in an ODI was four years ago, at Mackay. The host will be really keen to score another victory against this gifted side.

The class and experience of captain Harmanpreet Kaur, Smriti Mandhana, Jemimah Rodrigues, Deepti Sharma, Radha Yadav, the promise of Kranti Goud and M. Shree Charani and the return of Renuka Singh give India reasons to believe.

The teams: India: Harmanpreet Kaur (Capt.), Smriti Mandhana, Pratika Rawal, Harleen Deol, Deepti Sharma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Richa Ghosh, Arundhati Reddy, Kranti Gaud, Sayali Satghare, Radha Yadav, Renuka Singh, M. Shree Charani, Sneh Rana and Uma Chetry.

Australia: Alyssa Healy (Capt.), Tahlia McGrath, Nicole Faltum, Ashleigh Gardner, Kim Garth, Grace Harris, Alana King, Charli Knott, Phoebe Litchfield, Sophie Molineux, Beth Mooney, Ellyse Perry, Megan Schutt, Annabel Sutherland, Georgia Voll and Georgia Wareham.