India and Sri Lanka will face off today in the 2025 Women’s Cricket World Cup opener in Guwahati. Harmanpreet Kaur and Amol Muzumdar will have to take a few tough selection calls to kick their campaign off. While the batting order’s virtually confirmed, all the tinkering that’ll be done will happen in the bowling or all-rounder department.
Prior to the India vs Australia Women’s ODI series, InsideSport had an exclusive chat with Anjum Chopra. The former India captain feels just two spots are up for grabs. To her, India’s Playing XI for the Women’s Cricket World Cup looks like this: Smriti Mandhana, Pratika Rawal, Harleen Deol, Harmanpreet Kaur, Jemimah Rodrigues, Richa Ghosh, Deepti Sharma, Sneh Rana, ____, ____, Renuka Singh Thakur.
Amanjot Kaur is a must for India
For one of these two spots, she thinks Amanjot Kaur has to be the frontrunner over Arundhati Reddy or Kranti Gaud. As former India chief selector MSK Prasad said about Vijay Shankar in 2019, Amanjot’s a 3-dimensional player. Although the all-rounder has played just 3 ODIs in 2025, her performance has been exceptional.
She takes wickets, albeit at a slightly higher economy, and chips in quick lower-order runs. The best part of it all is that Amanjot’s a pace-bowling all-rounder. The rarest of commodities in cricket. Her inclusion makes the batting and bowling equally strong.
“I feel Amanjot Kaur should be part of India’s Playing XI. The management should find a way to get her into the team because she’s valuable in all three departments. It’ll be a massive addition to have Amanjot around the park. Fielding will obviously play a crucial role. She’s a complete all-rounder; she can bat, bowl, and field,” Anjum told InsideSport.
Amanjot Kaur ODI stats in 2025
| Mat | Runs | HS | Bat Avg | Bat SR | Wkts | Bowl Avg | Bowl SR | Econ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | 43 | 20* | 21.50 | 130.30 | 7 | 24.42 | 23.1 | 6.33 |
Sree Charani or Radha Yadav, who to pick?
With two off-spinners in Deepti and Sneh, India Women will need a bit more variety in the spin department. The competition for the third spinner is between Sree Charani and Radha Yadav. The latter is one of the best fielders in the world and gives a bit with the bat as well. But Anjum thinks India will tilt towards the better spinner, which is Charani.
Now the management played Charani in just one game against Australia, while Radha featured in all three. But Radha didn’t do well. She bowled just 17 overs and took 1 wicket at an economy of 8, which is abysmal. Charani went wicketless in that only game she played, but was more economical than Radha.
But the management tried Charani in 2 warm-up matches, and the 21-year-old took 4 wickets in 2 matches. Radha played just 1 game and took 1 wicket. Now, it’ll be up to the management to pick the better fielder but lesser spinner or the better spinner.
“There will be a tussle, but I feel Charani might get the nod ahead of Radha for the very simple reason that she has had every good England series. Yes, fielding is critical, but bowling 10 overs is also essential. It’s not like Charani is a bad fielder. Radha’s an exceptional fielder and can bat also; we know why she’s in the Indian team. By the looks of it, you would like to give Charana a chance ahead of Radha. I feel those 10 overs are more critical,” Anjum added.
ODI stats comparison in 2025
| Inns | Overs | Wkts | BBI | Avg | Econ | SR | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Radha Yadav | 4 | 27.0 | 1 | 1/27 | 198.00 | 7.33 | 162.0 |
| Sree Charani | 9 | 80.1 | 9 | 2/26 | 50.66 | 5.68 | 53.4 |
India squad for Women’s ODI World Cup 2025
Batters: Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Smriti Mandhana (vc), Pratika Rawal, Harleen Deol, Jemimah Rodrigues, Richa Ghosh (wk), Uma Chetry (WK)
All-rounders: Deepti Sharma, Amanjot Kaur, Sneh Rana
Bowlers: Renuka Singh Thakur, Arundhati Reddy, Kranti Gaud, Radha Yadav, Sree Charani
Standby: Tejal Hasabnis, Prema Rawat, Priya Mishra, Minnu Mani, Sayali Satghare
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