Follow UsFive T20Is are scheduled at roughly the same time the T20 World Cup will begin next year, and in the same country which will host it.
The Indian women’s T20I outfit couldn’t have asked for a better beginning to the buildup for the next year’s T20 World Cup in England. As they look to build a stable set of players who could feature for India in that prestigious tournament, the Harmanpreet Kaur-led side has a few creases that need ironing out as they face England in the T20I series.
Here are the key talking points for the five T20I series that begins later today, June 28, in Nottingham.
New look bowling attack’s baptism by fire
Absence of Renuka Singh Thakur and Pooja Vastrakar due to injuries in the pace bowling department has forced India to go with the young rookie pacer Kranti Goud who made her name in the 2025 Women’s Premier League (WPL), Sayali Satghare, pace bowling all-rounder Amanjot Kaur, and Arundhati Reddy as their four fast bowlers for this T20I series.
While Reddy has been around for some time now, having played 33 T20Is and picked 28 wickets at 29.21, she would still be bowling with a point to prove against England as her spot isn’t a certainty so far. However, she’ll be key in this series as she has some experience playing in England and is much more experienced than the other pacers.
Meanwhile, the likes of Kranti and Sayali would want to leave an impression, but also might be wary of England’s high-octane batters who can take the attack to India at all times.
The three specialist spinners — Sneh Rana, Radha Yadav, and Shree Charani — will also have a lot to do as controlling the run scoring often falls on the slower bowlers in Women's T20Is. The team would look towards Rana and Deepti Sharma with expectant eyes in that regard, as both have the ability to not only be economically, but also strike regularly in the shortest format with their wide repertoire of deliveries.
However, the problem is much graver when it comes to spinning the ball with the left hand in the team.
Shree Charani is India’s latest addition to the musical chair of left-arm spinners that’s been going on for quite some time now. Meanwhile, Radha would need to finally show that she can be a strike bowler for India. Notably, she was a late inclusion in the side because of injury to another new left-arm spinner, Shuchi Upadhyay.
Safe to say, the bowling looks to be India’s biggest potential issue going into the series.
Richa Ghosh’s impact on the game
There’s only one middle-order batter in women’s T20s who has a better strike rate than Richa Ghosh since 2024 — Deandra Dottin (with a cut off of 500 runs in T20s, and 200 runs in T20Is).
It’s only lately that Ghosh’s entry point has been pushed up by the team management in T20Is to the 13th or 14th over. However, prior to that, she just wasn’t getting enough deliveries to impact the game despite being the most destructive batter in women’s T20 cricket after the World Boss Dottin.
Even now, despite the earlier entry points, Ghosh has to inject immediate momentum into the innings because of the slow starts by skipper Harmanpreet, who does catch up later, but takes time to get going. As a result, there’s more often than not a slump in run scoring for India right after the powerplay.
Ghosh will now have to not only ensure that the momentum remains intact in the middle overs for India, but she also remains till the end to help India finish on a high because after her, India lacks the firepower required to score above par totals.
Can India finally show some fielding focus?
India have the sixth catching efficiency amongst the top 10 teams in women’s T20Is since 2024, as they take only 70.2% of the chances that come their way.
While the statistics here signal a need for a large improvement, what they don’t contextualise are the situations where drops at crucial junctures of the game have cost India a win. The recent 2024 T20 World Cup in UAE was a stark reminder in that regard as well, and yet things haven’t improved much as the Indian players continued to drop a plethora of chances in the WPL as well.
The Indian women also had focused camps around it at the newly built Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru, and it now remains to be seen if India’s biggest Achilles heel will continue to trouble them in England or not.
Moreover, the ground fielding would need a lot of work as well, as India are the sixth worst in terms of net runs saved in T20I cricket since 2024 as well.
Will we finally see some stability in selection?
A big reason behind the decent-but-not-good-enough kind of performances by the Indian women’s team has been the gazillion number of debuts and changes in the playing XI in the last few years across formats, which always gives the team a look of transition, without actually being in it.
A big job for coach Amol Muzumdar and skipper Harmanpreet would be to ensure that a solid core is formed for the T20I side in this series, which will continue to play till the next T20 World Cup in 2026. While the batting top five of Mandhana, Shafali Verma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Harmanpreet and Ghosh remains fixed, India still need to zero down on their number six and seven batters as finishing the game has been a major issue for the team in the post-COVID years.
Meanwhile, it would also be crucial to see how India handle the likes of Amanjot, who has shown the ability to be a utility player in both the batting and bowling departments. Harmanpreet has been guilty of not giving enough confidence to her pacers, and if she makes the same errors with a rookie pace attack, India might be in deep trouble not only in this T20I series but also for the upcoming T20 World Cup.