Toss India chose to bat vs South Africa
India captain Harmanpreet Kaur won the toss in her landmark 200th T20I and chose to bat in bright sunshine at Old Trafford against South Africa. She had earlier handed an international debut cap to legspinner Prema Rawat, who was among India's two changes.
Rawat, who plays for Uttarakhand in the domestic circuit and Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) in the WPL, replaced the injured Shreyanka Patil in the squad of 15 and got a game ahead of spin-bowling allrounder Radha Yadav. The other change was Arundhati Reddy returning to the XI after missing India's last game against Netherlands. She came in for Kranti Gaud, who went wicketless in India's first two games and also the warm-ups before that.
The changes meant India will have two fast bowlers and three spinners to defend their target on a "very good pitch," according to Harmanpreet.
South Africa also made two changes and they would have preferred to bat first as well. Tazmin Brits came in for Sune Luus, who scored 5 and 1 against Pakistan and Australia, and Dane van Niekerk replaced Kayla Reyneke, who scored 2 and 0. This will be van Niekerk's first T20 World Cup game since the 2020 edition in Australia, when South Africa lost to the hosts in the semi-final.
It's a fresh pitch for this game that looks dry with equidistant square boundaries. This will also be the first time India and South Africa face each other in the women's T20 World Cup. They last met in a bilateral series in South Africa, which the hosts won 4-1.
India: 1 Shafali Verma, 2 Smriti Mandhana, 3 Yastika Bhatia, 4 Jemimah Rodrigues, 5 Harmanpreet Kaur (capt), 6 Richa Ghosh (wk), 7 Deepti Sharma, 8 Prema Rawat, 9 Arundhati Reddy, 10 N Shree Charani, 11 Nandani Sharma
South Africa: 1 Laura Wolvaardt (capt), 2 Tazmin Brits, 3 Annerie Dercksen, 4 Dane van Niekerk, 5 Marizanne Kapp, 6 Nadine de Klerk, 7 Chloe Tryon, 8 Sinalo Jafta (wk), 9 Shabnim Ismail, 10 Ayabonga Khaka, 11 Nonkululeko Mlaba