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India suffered a major blow ahead of their ICC Women's T20 World Cup 2023 opener against Pakistan on Sunday as vice-captain Smriti Mandhana has been ruled out due to a finger injury.
Sources told ANI that the southpaw is going to miss the side's first match. Mandhana suffered a finger injury during India's warm-up game against Australia on Monday in which she was dismissed for a duck. India lost the match by 44 runs. She didn't feature in India's 52-run win in the second warm-up game against Bangladesh on Wednesday. The match against Pakistan will be held at Cape Town on Sunday and can be viewed from 6.30 pm IST. "Smriti has got a finger injury, she is still recovering. Most likely, she won't play tomorrow," coach Hrishikesh Kanitkar said at a press conference on Saturday. "It's just a finger injury, she will be fine before the next game," he added. Mandhana, ranked third in the latest ICC Women's T20I Batting Rankings, has been one of India's most prolific run-scorers across formats. Her aggregate of 2,651 T20I runs has only been bettered by skipper Harmanpreet Kaur among India batters. The left-hander was an integral member of India team during its runners-up finish at the ICC Women's T20 World Cup 2020 in Australia and has been in fine form since, having aggregated 935 runs at an average of 32.24 with eight fifties, the most for anyone in the format. India are placed alongside England, West Indies, Pakistan and Ireland in Group B and two top two teams from the group will progress to the semi-finals. India squad for ICC Women's T20 World Cup 2023: Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Verma, Yastika Bhatia, Richa Ghosh, Jemimah Rodrigues, Harleen Deol, Deepti Sharma, Devika Vaidya, Radha Yadav, Renuka Thakur, Anjali Sarvani, Pooja Vastrakar, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Shikha Pandey. Reserves: Sabbhineni Meghana, Sneh Rana, Meghna Singh.(ANI)
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