India pin faith on settled core for home World Cup

The India Women's squad for the home ODI World Cup, set to begin on September 30, was announced on Tuesday largely following expected lines. The Neetu David-led selection panel opted for a settled 15-member unit, steering clear of last-minute surprises despite ongoing discussions around Shafali Verma's inclusion and the questions over fitness of a few key players.

Squad: Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Smriti Mandhana (vc), Pratika Rawal, Harleen Deol, Jemimah Rodrigues, Richa Ghosh (wk), Yastika Bhatia (wk), Deepti Sharma, Sneh Rana, Amanjot Kaur, Radha Yadav, Sree Charani, Kranti Goud, Arundhati Reddy, Renuka Thakur

Here's a breakdown of the squad and key talking points from the all-important selection:

From the top

After Shafali Verma was dropped last year due to inconsistent performances in the 50-over format, India experimented briefly with Priya Punia and Richa Ghosh as openers during the three-match ODI tour of Australia in December. For the next assignment in the format, against the West Indies at home, India handed a debut to the relatively unknown Pratika Rawal. Since then, the Delhi opener has cemented her place at the top, leaving the management with little reason to revisit any of the past combinations.

Rawal has accumulated 703 runs in her nascent ODI career thus far, at a highly impressive average of 54.07 - including a century and five fifties. She has added 1086 partnership runs for the first wicket with Smriti Mandhana already, including a 233-run stand against Ireland. Remarkably, in 10 of those 14 innings, the partnership has registered at least a fifty while they average over 77. Those compelling numbers were enough for the selectors to resist the temptation of recalling Verma.

There was some merit to that temptation. The inclusion of explosive Verma can potentially allow India to maximise PowerPlay by accommodating an extra aggressor at the top. India's current top-four - including Harleen Deol at no. 3 and skipper Harmanpreet Kaur at no. 4 - feature one too many accumulators which can feel out of step with the modern approach to 50-overs cricket. Even though Deol's slow-starting ways have drawn some criticism, replacing her with Rawal at no. 3 would have been neither fair nor prudent this close to the World Cup. Moreover, it meant sacrificing consistency at the altar of belligerence. Belligerence that, based on Verma's limited exploits internationally since comeback, aren't guaranteed .

This would have been, by far, the most contentious point on the agenda, and the team management have seemingly made their stance clear by rewarding both Rawal and Deol with their maiden World Cup call-ups for hitting the ground running at the highest level. Why fix what clearly isn't broken?

Middle-order stability

She was for long touted as a natural successor to Mithali Raj's no. 3 throne, but Jemimah Rodrigues has strapped in at no. 5 by showing tremendous adaptability to ever-evolving demands of the role. Richa Ghosh, the frontline wicketkeeping choice, continues to hold her place even though she's now got Yastika Bhatia breathing down her neck after her recent exploits for India A in Australia.

That's followed by all-rounders Deepti Sharma and Amanjot Kaur who offer both control with the ball and stability with the bat - and seem locked in too. With Sneh Rana and Radha Yadav to follow, it not only offers India great batting depth for the home World Cup but also lends stability to their middle and lower-order after a couple of seasons of consistent chopping and changing for mixed results.

The continuity in selections and player roles is in stark contrast to the build-up of the T20 World Cup less than 12 months ago where key positions remained in a state of flux going into the official warm-ups. This sense of continuity and clarity could be very handy in crunch situations.

Moreover, all four all-rounders are proper 10-over bowling options offering tactical versatility to their attack. This significantly eases Harmanpreet's task of constructing a well-rounded bowling group, especially given that it's the only apparent weak link in an otherwise solid lineup.

Let's talk pace

While the newfound stability in India's batting order is a refreshing development, the same cannot be said for the bowling department. Since the 2022 World Cup in New Zealand, India have handed out 19 debuts in the format - 17 of them to bowlers or bowling all-rounders. Much of this churn stems from the frequent injury setbacks to frontline bowlers during this World Cup cycle.

India's pace stocks were hit hardest by Pooja Vastrakar's injury-plagued season, forcing the selectors to look elsewhere as their premier pace-bowling all-rounder spent nearly a year in rehab. That paved the comeback road for Amanjot who herself was on the sidelines from WPL 2024 until this January due to a stress injury of the lower back. Winning Emerging Player of WPL 2025 put her back in the reckoning, and Amanjot grabbed the opportunity with strong all-round performances on India comeback.

When the back injury flared up again, Amanjot was 'rested' for the final two ODIs in England last month. The management, erring on the side of caution, also have kept her out of the ODIs against Australia in the lead-up to the global event. Still, her availability now plugs a crucial gap in the bowling department - that of a reliable seam-bowling all-rounder. With a fit-again Renuka Thakur also back in the mix following a foot injury - albeit without any game-time since the group-stage exit in WPL - India's pace department gains a timely injection of experience, particularly with the new ball.

The Thakur-Amanjot pairing ticks several key boxes. They haven't bowled together a lot, if at all, but on paper their inclusion brings balance to the XI, allowing the team to have both batting depth and at the same time persist with the spin-heavy attack that has served them well in home conditions. But this punt India has taken will hinge on the duo's ability to stay fit - especially given their recent struggles with serious injuries.

Should either - or worse, both - break down again during the tournament, India could find themselves scrambling for plan Bs. In the last ODI in England, Kranti Goud was the lone pacer in the XI that comprised four frontline spinners, and returned a six-fer that's now India's second-best bowling figures in the format. Arundhati Reddy is the fourth medium pacer in the World Cup 15, and has left a strong impression since her debut in the format little over a year ago even though the wickets column may suggest otherwise owing to her rotten luck with India's fielding gaffes. That early promise has earned them both a World Cup berth, but they remain largely untested at the international level.