The Big Picture

If you look at the performance of the Women in Blue in the 50-over and the shortest format of the game; its like chalk and cheese. While they have been ruling the roost in 50-over cricket; winning almost everywhere, things haven't been hunky-dory in T20I cricket.

On Thursday, Smriti Mandhana and her team will look to shrug off their 5-match losing streak and also keep the series alive against the very opponent that kickstarted the slump last year in the Caribbean. India's batting- especially their middle-order and their inability to close out the matches in crunch situations have been at the heart of their struggles in T20I cricket and skipper Mandhana and coach WV Raman know they have their task cut out ahead of next year's World Twenty20.

The loss in the first T20I was a collective failure though as India's famed top-order failed to give their side a steady start in their pursuit of 161 as Linsey Smith and Katherine Brunt bowled an incisive first spell to de-rail the run-chase.

With the bowl too, barring Shikha Pandey [1-18] and Poonam Yadav [0-18], none of the bowlers were able to put the breaks on the scoring rate as Wyatt [35], Beaumont [62] and Taylor [40] played freely.

With the series on the line, India will need to shrug off their appalling form from their batters to bowlers while the English would look to do an encore of what they did in the first game.

Match Details

Venue- Baraspara Cricket Stadium, Guwahati

Match Timing:- Thursday, March 07, 2019, 11:00 AM IST

What to expect?

As we saw in the first T20I, there were plenty of runs for the batters while the wicket also assisted fast bowling initially. With a match already played on the surface, expect the spinners to come into play tomorrow.

Recent Form-

India- LLLLL

England- WLWLW

Team News & Playing 11

India might opt for the likes of Ekta Bisht or Anuja Patil in place of Arundhati Reddy in the playing 11.

India Women: Veda Krishnamurthy, Mithali Raj, Jemimah Rodrigues, Smriti Mandhana [c], Arundhati Reddy/Anuja Patil/Ekta Bisht, Taniya Bhatia(w), Harleen Deol, Deepti Sharma, Shikha Pandey, Radha Yadav, Poonam Yadav

For the English, Georgia Elwiss has been ruled out following her back injury.

England Women: Heather Knight [c], Lauren Winfield, Natalie Sciver, Linsey Smith, Sophia Dunkley Brown, Katherine Brunt, Anya Shrubsole, Alex Hartley, Kate Cross, Tammy Beaumont [wk], Danielle Wyatt