INDIA WOMEN’S TOUR OF ENGLAND, 2025
Harmanpreet Kaur’s team have won four of the six games on this tour so far © Getty
It has been less than a week since Lord’s witnessed a thriller of a Test that went down to the final session of the final day. International cricket returns to the iconic ground five days later as India and England will square off once again, but this time for the second women’s ODI of the three-match series.
India had a lot of positives to take from the first ODI in Southampton. Despite the inexperience in their bowling attack, they took wickets at crucial junctures to keep pegging England back. Kranti Goud and Sneh Rana picked up a brace while the young Sree Charani bowled ten tight overs. On the batting front, all of their top-order players got starts while Deepti Sharma showed immense maturity in completing the chase. The only cause for concern would be their fielding, as they dropped two catches in the middle overs of Sophia Dunkley and Alice Davidson Richards.
For England, their success and faultless displays from the West Indies tour have suddenly come crashing down over the last three weeks. India have won four of the six games on this tour so far. The hosts had a top-order collapse in the first ODI, with Goud picking up the two openers in her opening spell. Another concern for the hosts was the regularity in which they lost wickets, which happened on more than one occasion, leaving two new batters to rebuild the innings.
The hosts were spirited on the field and made a match of the game but that wasn’t enough, as Nat Sciver-Brunt had said in the post-match presentation that there were not enough runs to play with in the end.
When: July 19, 2025; 11 AM Local Time (10 AM GMT, 3:30 PM IST)
Where: Lord’s, London
What to expect: Rain is forecast on matchday but most of the heavy showers will be in the morning before the match starts. The forecast eases out a bit during the specified match time but not enough to rule out rain interruptions completely.
Team news:
England: The hosts’ top-order had a blip in the first game. But their middle-order bailed them out to take them to a fighting total. With Sciver-Brunt saying the runs weren’t enough to defend, the bowlers too couldn’t be highly blamed. An unchanged XI from the first game is expected
Probable XI: Tammy Beaumont, Amy Jones (wk), Emma Lamb, Nat Sciver-Brunt (c), Sophia Dunkley, Alice Davidson Richards, Charlotte Dean, Sophie Ecclestone, Kate Cross, Lauren Filer, Lauren Bell
India: Barring any last minute injuries, India too are unlikely to make any changes to the team they fielded in Southampton.
Probable XI: Pratika Rawal, Smriti Mandhana, Harleen Deol, Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Jemimah Rodrigues, Richa Ghosh (wk), Deepti Sharma, Amanjot Kaur, Sneh Rana, Sree Charani, Kranti Goud
What they said:
“Whenever I bat with her [Smriti Mandhana], there aren’t any hyped conversations to be very honest. We’re just playing a game. We’re just enjoying what we do best. Also, whenever I bat with her, I’m always in awe of her batting, of how wonderfully she plays those shots. And whenever I’m on the other side, on the non-striker end, I just feel like that I could contribute as much as I can into the match. Also, what I feel like, there’s no such pressure when I’m batting with her. Any total that we’re chasing, it feels like whenever I’m batting with her, it can be chased down pretty easily.” – Pratika Rawal on her opening partnership with Smriti Mandhana.
“I mean, there’s a fantastic sports psych – Louise – I’ve done loads of work with her and the main thing for me has been trusting my game and trusting myself and the skills that I do really well. So yeah, and I’m quite an up and down human at times. So trying to stay as level as possible and yeah, keep trusting myself as the games go on.” – England all-rounder Alice Davidson Richards speaking about how she worked on her game while away from the England set-up.
© Cricbuzz
