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In this sport, you are never even close to being the favorites against Australia. You can be the home team in conditions that suit you, have the most in-form batter of the year opening for you, know the opposition captain is returning from injury, and even have the emotional narrative behind you. Odds would still, vehemently, favor Australia. In Harmanpreet Kaur-led India’s case, Australia are not only undefeated so far in the 2025 World Cup and have the unmatched depth where almost all their bowlers can bat and vice-versa. They have also won 49 of the 60 head-to-head ODIs, including the last three. If you are in that Blue dressing room, in Kaur’s or coach Amol Mazumdar’s shoes, what can you even say to help? News18 CricketNext put former West Indies fast-bowler and broadcaster at the tournament, Ian Bishop, on the spot with that question during a Media Day ahead of the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup – India vs Australia semi-final on October 30. “First of all, it’s no easy task playing against a team as good as Australia,” Bishop said. “But what I believe… they are not invincible, but they are very good. They are a juggernaut. You have to try to get the Indian team into a frame of mind that says ‘it’s a game of cricket’. It’s an important game of cricket, but it is a game of cricket. For the players, it is not life or death. And saying that in the sense of trying to keep everyone calm, trying to keep everyone relaxed, because that’s what you want to be going in against the champion team, the defending champions.” “But there must be a sense of belief that even though India have only beaten Australia once in the last 11 games and there’s a sort of an advantage of 49 to 11 in favor of the Australians, you have to believe that one of those times when India have won is going to be in that semi-final tomorrow.” Bishop had a similar message for Shafali Verma, the opening batter who’d be replacing the injured Pratika Rawal on short notice for her team’s biggest game of the tournament. “It is a one-off game and she has to come in with her mindset like ‘I got this opportunity to make a difference, I’ll try to be as relaxed as possible, but I’m going to go out there and make the best use of this opportunity and fill the void adequately’.” What should India’s combination be? The batting order picks itself up for the match, but like previously, India have a dilemma with their bowling set-up. They started the tournaments with an attempt to recreate some of the typical Aussie depth with several all-rounders and only two tailenders. It failed because the bowling options were limited and resulted in a lot of losses. However, curiously, it also seemed to give India the best chance against Australia, not just in the narrow group-stage loss earlier this month but also in the three-match series (India lost 2-1) before the tournament. Take the risk and go back to that? Or just stick to what worked against New Zealand and Bangladesh with one less batter and six quality bowling options? “I would like India to have that extra bowling depth and allow the batters to take responsibility,” Bishop said. “Whoever that combination is with, with the bowling, the batting depth of Australia, I want, I would want to have that extra bowling combination,” he added. “I don’t like part-timers in such a big game. Back the batting at the top, they are specialists to get you runs, but always have that fall-back, especially at the DY Patil, which looks to be a good batting surface. If you go in with five specialist bowlers, Australia are going to look to target even harder one or two of those to put pressure on India so that captain Harmanpreet then has to go, whether it’s to herself for some part-time bowling,” Bishop added. Catch Australia vs India in the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup India 2025, tomorrow, at 3:00 PM, LIVE on JioHotstar and Star Sports Network.
