Bengaluru,15 March। A maiden overseas series victory in Australia, a home series win against Sri Lanka, a week-long camp at National Cricket Academy and two warm-up matches have put the Indian women's cricket team in good stead to open their T20 world cup campaign on Tuesday with a contest against Bangladesh.
The team led by Mithali Raj aims to do better than the previous two world cups in which it could not cross the group stage.
Heading into the tournament, India won 10 of its previous 13 T20 matches. Against Bangladesh - the opponent on Tuesday, India won all the previous seven T20 matches and is hoping to continue the winning streak in the eighth fixture as well.
In the 2014 World Twenty20, India defeated Bangladesh by 79 runs with Harmanpreet Kaur scoring a 59-ball 77.
Meanwhile, starting from October 2012, Bangladesh lost 18 of its last 20 matches in the shortest form of cricket except for the wins against Sri Lanka and Ireland.
Indian captain Raj is one of the 13 players to have scored 1,000 plus runs in T20 format and since the 2014 World T20 edition. she has scored 183 runs while Kaur lapped up 164 runs.
Emerging from an injury, India's top wicket taker in T20s with 44 wickets, Jhulan Goswami will have a major role to play.
Other than Goswami, Ekta Bist and Anuja Patil also have to shoulder the bowling department responsibility.
Lead by Jahanara Alam, Bangladesh is in high spirits with a warm up match triumph against Ireland.
India versus Bangladesh T20 match is scheduled from at 3.30 p.m. at Chinnaswamy Stadium here.
Agency