India face familiar rivals Australia in the semi-final of the Women's T20 World Cup on Thursday. This will be India's third straight appearance in the semi-final of a Women's T20 World Cup. Australia beat India in the previousT20 World Cup final at home and more recently at Commonwealth Games gold medal match in Birmingham last year. Women's cricket in India has grown massively since the final appearance at the ODI World Cup in 2017 and now, the team will expected to step on the pedal in the last four clash against Australia.
Here's India's Predicted XI vs Australia in the Women's T20 World Cup Semi-final
Shafali Verma - The power-hitting opener has not been able to learn from her mistakes, mainly her inability to rotate the strike and her susceptibility against the short ball.
Smriti Mandhana - India Vice-captain Smriti has been among the consistent performers and once again she will be critical to the team's chances against Australia.
Harmanpreet Kaur - The India captain finds herself under tremendous pressure to perform having not done anything of note so far in the T20 World Cup.
Richa Ghosh - The wicketkeeper-batter has scored 122 runs in four matches at a strike-rate of 140.22. She has been a bright spark for her team.
Jemimah Rodrigues - The veteran batter has done alright in the tournament but needs to do more to help the team's cause.
Deepti Sharma - The spin allrounder has so far taken five wickets in four games but her economy - 7.84 runs per over - is quite high
Renuka Thakur - The fast bowler took a five-wicket haul against the strong English side. Her performance will be crucial against Australia.
Pooja Vastrakar - The right-arm medium pacer has played in all four matches so far. She has, however, not been able to leave a mark with just two wickets.
Shikha Pandey - The veteran pacer has played two matches and has taken only one wicket.
Rajeshwari Gayakwad - With an economy of 7.80 and no wickets to show in four matches, Gayakwad has been ineffective. The left-arm spinner, however, has been persisted with.
Radha Yadav - The sceond left-arm spinner has had a better show so far with two wickets and an economy of 6.22 runs per over.
With PTI inputs