Shafali Verma, Jemimah Rodrigues and Bharti Fulmali combine to make one-half of India’s top six. Combined, they scored 8 off 15 in the Women’s T20 World Cup 2026 opener against Pakistan. Harmanpreet Kaur managed 36 off 35. Smriti Mandhana was scratchy to begin and was dropped twice but went on to score 68 off 44.
Richa Ghosh standout batter
Richa Ghosh was perhaps the only shining light in the batting department. Her 34-run cameo off 17 balls took India from 132 to 170 in the last two overs of the first innings. The total was always far from Pakistan’s reach. That’s why India won by 64 runs at Edgbaston. But the performance wasn’t great.
Pacers’ lackluster performance
Kranti Goud and Arundhati Reddy, India’s new-ball fast bowlers, went for 35 runs in 3 overs in the powerplay. However, once that first wicket fell, Pakistan collapsed like a pack of cards. Deepti Sharma was the standout performer. The all-rounder had been in woeful touch.
In the 3-match series against England, Deepti took just 1 wicket and went at 10.19 runs per over. Against Pakistan, she claimed a 5-wicket haul. The off-spinner bowled slower, realising the surface was gripping a bit. Deepti had 3 wickets in her last 4 matches and overtook that tally today itself. Other spinners – Shreyanka Patil, Sree Charani and Shafali Verma – were equally impressive. But the fielding disappointed.
Dropped catches
In the first two overs of the second innings, Richa missed a stumping and dropped a catch. Arundhati let another chance go in the fourth over. After that, India didn’t drop another chance, but there were a few misfields. All in all, it was far from India’s best game. With the bat or in the field. The fast bowlers struggled as well.
Tough challenges ahead
India was slightly lucky to face Pakistan in the opener. The next game isn’t tough either: the Netherlands on June 17. But the road ahead won’t be easy. Today’s victory, a 64-run margin, will do loads of good from a net run rate aspect. But India needed to tighten up. Forget Australia, beating South Africa won’t be possible with the type of effort we saw from India in Birmingham.
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