Tigresses buoyant for winning start beating India

The five-match WT20i series between the Bangladesh Womens cricket team and their Indian counterparts is set to commence today at the Sylhet International Cricket Stadium. Both hosts and guests are confident of a winning start.

The match is scheduled to begin at 4:00 pm (BST).

Both teams suffered defeats to Australia prior to this series. Bangladesh was thrashed 3-0 at home by the Aussies a few weeks ago, while India conceded a 2-1 defeat at home in December-January.
Bangladeshs batting performance against Australia was subpar, managing scores of 126 for 4, 103 for 9 and 78 all out in three matches.

Skipper Nigar Sultana Joty scored 96 runs in three innings including a fifty, while Fahima Khatun contributed 53 runs.

Murshida Khatun, Sobhana Mostary, Sultana Khatun and Dilara Akter all failed to deliver and they need to step up to turn the tide in their favour.

Wicketkeeper-batter Rubya Haider is making a comeback after a year and is set to replace Fargana Pinkey in the top order.

Bangladeshs bowling unit, led by spinner Nahida Akter, needs to play a vital role in restricting India as cheaply as possible. Marufa Akter and Fariha Islam Trisna are the two quicks, while Rabeya Khan and either Shorna Akter or Ritu Moni will play as bowling all-rounders.

Despite the absence of key player Jemimah Rodrigues due to injury concerns, India boasts a strong and experienced lineup.

Smriti Mandana, Shafali Verma, Yastika Bhatia, Harmanpreet Kaur and Richa Ghosh are in good form and have been outstanding with the bat in the recently concluded WPL. Deepti Sharma, Pooja Vastrakar, Radha Yadav, Amanjot Kaur and Renuka Singh Thakur are ready to contribute both with the bat and the ball, while Sajana Sajeevan is likely to make her T20i debut for India today.

In terms of head-to-head statistics, the visitors are clearly ahead having won 14 times in the previous 17 meetings, while Bangladesh has prevailed on three occasions. In their latest encounter, India sealed the series 2-1 at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium in Mirpur.

During Indias last visit, tensions ran high both on and off the field, with Indian skipper Harmanpreet displaying indecent behaviour towards the on-field umpire followed by an outburst during the post-match presentation. Similar tensions could arise during this series as well.

SICS typically offers some assistance to seamers initially, but both teams might still rely on spinners to take wickets.

Recent matches involving Bangladesh and Sri Lanka mens teams at this venue witnessed high-scoring games. Therefore, the team winning the toss is expected to bat first and post a formidable total.