Harmanpreet Kaur's Form With Bat In Focus As India Look To Salvage Pride In Final ODI vs Australia

Captain Harmanpreet Kaur's form with the bat will be in focus as the Indian Women's team looks to salvage pride and end a nine-match losing streak at home against a dominant Australia in the third and final ODI here on Tuesday. Kaur has led her side admirably well in a long home season with a couple of historic results in the Tests, but this period has also witnessed her struggle with the bat. She has scored runs in double digits only thrice in eight innings across formats this season with her highest being 49 against England in the one-off Test last month.

In the historic win against Australia in the one-off Test, Kaur was out for a duck in India's first innings and she was not required to bat in the second essay. In the two ODIs against Australia who have taken an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match series, her scores were 9 and 5.

While India made the most of the favourable home conditions in the one-off Test, the home team's frailties have come to the fore again in white-ball cricket in the last two ODIs.

If India were ordinary with the ball in the first ODI wherein they lost by six wickets even after posting their highest-ever total of 282 for 8 in the format, Kaur's side dropped as many as seven catches in the second game, as Australia get away with a three-run win.

At the same time, Richa Ghosh's heroics in the second ODI -- 96 off 113 balls (13 fours) in a stiff chase -- and Jemimah Rodrigues' consistency (82 and 44) have delivered the goods with the bat for India.

Ghosh is India's new find in No. 3 and to have an aggressive batter in the top order gives the hosts a lot of firepower.

Pressure will be on the likes of Amanjot Kaur and Deepti Sharma, who could not finish the game for India despite the equation