India is hurting after South Africa silenced their ego, whilst Australia will ponder if their performance against Pakistan was good enough because it was the Induvidual performance of Beth Mooney that got them over the line.
You don’t need a rocket scientist to script that Sri Lanka and
Pakistan are the weakest batting units in this World Cup. India and England exposed Sri Lanka whilst Australia exposed a hapless Pakistan batting cordon. But, Australia bowlers will be put to the test for that matter, and no doubt
Indians too. Both India and Australia have world-class batters, not the fly by night batters that India bowled to against Sri Lanka or Australia bowled against Pakistan. Today is a proper World Cup game, not a world-class vs. Amateur game.
Australia has dominated against India in the past World Cup outings. The reason I do not emphasise on past records
is because they say yesterday is dead and gone. It is how you perform on the given day.
Australia has to throw caution to the wind because their batters struggled against Pakistan spin cordon in the middle overs . It was Beth Mooney who ultimately proved that correct use of the feet was the answer.
Like India Australia bat deep, Alina King who scored a run a ball 50 batting at number 8, adds batting strength to the batting cordon, hence both teams look balanced in terms of batting strength.
Richa Ghose and Sneha Rana also have so much talent that India, too, bat deep
Guess the Australian bowling attack looks stronger than India, Ash Gardiner will play a pivotal role for the visitors whilst Deepthi Sharma is an Indian trump card.
Finally, is Smriti Mandana under too much pressure? Guess yes, the aftermath of excessive media hype and the price you pay for it when tagged as a super star.