Pakistan bowl first vs Australia as Schutt and Wareham come in as Darcie Brown and Sophia Molineux miss out.
In an attempt to get her team their first World Cup point, Pakistan captain Fatima Sana urged Australia to bat in the hot, dry, and bug-free conditions during the Women’s World Cup in Colombo. Despite temperatures of 31 degrees and 70% humidity, which made it feel much hotter, Sana hoped to benefit from any early help for her spinners. Alyssa Healy, the captain of Australia, expressed her satisfaction with her bowlers’ ability to perform under the lights and stated that they would have batted first anyhow.
They are well-rested and confident going into the match because they have defeated Pakistan in all 16 of their prior encounters. Australia’s previous game was a victory over New Zealand on October 1, but they haven’t played since due to a washout against Sri Lanka. The XI that defeated New Zealand eight days ago saw two changes from Australia. They replaced Sophia Molineux with Georgia Wareham and brought back swing bowler Megan Schutt, whose absence from their opening game was a significant talking point, for Darcie Brown.
Pakistan’s batting, in especially, requires improvement as they are at the bottom of the points table. They continued to start with Muneeba Ali and Omaima Sohail, but they substituted Eyman Fatima at No. 4 for all-rounder Aliya Riaz, who has more hitting power. Although they only have five bowling options due to their attack of three spinners and two seamers (Sana and Diana Iqbal), Sana was optimistic that they could limit Australia up front because the weather was drier than it had been a few days prior.
Australia will play their first match in Colombo after winning ten straight ODI World Cup matches.