Zimbabwe opt to bat; both teams unchanged
Deepti Sharma and Niki Prasad forged a successful partnership in the first T20I • BCCI
Toss Zimbabwe chose to bat vs India
Zimbabwe captain Josephine Nkomo called correctly and chose to bat first in the second T20I against India in Raipur, with both teams unchanged from their opening encounter two days ago.
Raipur is expected to serve a similarly slow and grippy pitch as the first T20I, where Zimbabwe reduced India to 19 for 4 during their chase of 115, before they recovered thanks to an 82-run partnership between Deepti Sharma and debutant Niki Prasad, who retained her spot in the team as well.
"We'll try to rotate the strike more," Nkomo said when asked about batting first. In their previous game - their first ever bilateral engagement against India in women's internationals - Zimbabwe's lack of strike rotation allowed them to make only 114 for 5 despite a strong start in the powerplay.
On the other hand, Smriti Mandhana, playing as India's full-time captain for the first time in this series, said: "As a team, we didn't have a convincing chase last time, so we'll try to get better this time."
India: 1 Smriti Mandhana (capt), 2 Shafali Verma, 3 Anushka Sharma, 4 Harmanpreet Kaur, 5 Niki Prasad, 6 Richa Ghosh (wk), 7 Deepti Sharma, 8 Arundhati Reddy, 9 N Shree Charani, 10 Nandani Sharma, 11 Kranti Gaud
Zimbabwe: 1 Kelis Ndhlovu, 2 Beloved Biza, 3 Chipo Mugeri-Tiripano, 4 Josephine Nkomo (capt), 5 Sharne Mayers, 6 Modester Mupachikwa (wk), 7 Michelle Mavunga, 8 Francisca Chipare, 9 Tendai Makusha, 10 Olinder Chare, 11 Loryn Phiri
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