'At home' India keen to crash Australia's house party

Start from nothingness, get on board the ghost train, and then walk through the maze to get to the Sydney Showground. 

Confused? Let me explain. 

First nothingness. From Lidcombe station, you have to find a Platform Zero to get to Sydney Olympic Park (Zero because they built it alongside platform No. 1 before the Sydney Olympics). As the name suggests, there aren’t many people in the train that sets off from this platform. Olympic Park is another matter. The complex is sprawling and crawling with people, and you think you’re sorted when you see signs for Showground, but then you find out there’s more than one building with that name. Then the green turf appears with a yellow pitch in the middle, and you feel better, but only until you try and find the nets, which are across the street on the other side of the stadium. 

At those nets, there seemed to be one question for India: narrow stance or wide? Veda Krishnamurthy and Richa Ghosh were batting in the same net, Veda with her feet almost together bolstering her height, and Richa using her wide stance to give her more stability. Both were making good sounds with the bat, and it will be interesting to see which one of them features in India’s XI on game day. 

“We had to give chances to all the players before the World Cup, we wanted to give enough chances to all so they don't feel extra pressure,” explained Harmanpreet Kaur of Ghosh’s selection over Krishnamurthy for the tri-series final. “It was very good preparation for us because England and Australia are among the best sides in the world and when you get a chance against them it gives you confidence. We'll decide our best XI this evening.”

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Australia, too, have an important selection decision to make ahead of a first home World Cup for almost all their players, something Meg Lanning has described as a potentially once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Their fastest bowler, and potentially the world’s fastest, Tayla Vlaeminck, has been ruled out of the tournament with a stress fracture of the foot. The inclusion of off-spinner Molly Strano in her place tells us that Australia can have all the depth they want, but there is only one Vlaeminck. 

“There's no real like-for-like replacement for Tay, no one does what she does,” lamented Lanning on Thursday (February 20). “Molly has bowled well in the power play in the past and can bowl at any time through the innings. We just think that covers us the best we could. She was very unlucky to miss out on the squad in the first place.” Strano dismissed Indian opener Shafali Verma on five out of seven occasions they have lined up this year, and that might be a match up Australia will be tempted to exploit. 

Come Friday (February 21) evening, no one will get lost on the way to the Showground. You just follow the crowd. One of the reasons this game is not being played at North Sydney Oval - where Australia have lost just two of their 23 games across formats - is its size: Showground holds more than 18,000. The other reason is that the nearby suburb of Parramatta is home to a large population of Indian and Asian descent. Then there’s the pitch, which both captains said can sometimes be a bit slow. This will also be the first international game the venue hosts.

“There’s not much data for women’s games on this ground but throughout the Big Bash this year it seemed to play reasonably well and we played a practice game on the same wicket three or four weeks ago,” said Lanning. “I guess there is a little bit of unknown about this ground so we start on a level pegging with India in that regard but I think for the good of the tournament, to create a great atmosphere and get the crowds along it’s a really good move."

“The Indian support is something we’ve spoken about, and I know some of the men’s games around Australia when India play there’s been a lot of Indians supporting them. It’s a great thing for the game. We are expecting a big crowd, but also a lot of support for India. It’s just something we’ll have to get used to.”

More than 15,000 of the 18,000 tickets have already been sold. There are likely to be a fair few blue bloods in that number. If the lights turn on at the Showground to more blue shirts than green and gold, and the pitch takes some turn, Australia might start their home World Cup feeling a bit lost themselves.

Squads

Australia: Meg Lanning (c), Rachael Haynes, Erin Burns,Nicola Carey, Ashleigh Gardner, Alyssa Healy (wk), Jess Jonassen, Delissa Kimmince, Sophie Molineux, Beth Mooney, Ellyse Perry, Megan Schutt, Annabel Sutherland, Molly Strano, Georgia Wareham.

India: Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Verma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Harleen Deol, Veda Krishnamurthy, Taniya Bhatia (wk), Deepti Sharma, Shikha Pandey, Pooja Vastrakar, Poonam Yadav, Radha Yadav, Arundhati Reddy, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Richa Ghosh.