India vs Ireland: India in must-win situation in Women's T20 World Cup

While England, who have won all their three matches, have a firm hold on the last-four spot, India’s chanceshinge on Pakistan’s match against the West Indies. India have four points from three matches, but their run rate of +0.205 is a cause for concern. In the event of Ireland upsetting India, then the result of the match between Pakistan and the West Indies will assume significance, and then the net run-rate will come into play.

Ireland, who are already out of the race, will start underdogs against India, who have issues in their line-up that they need to tide over. Their biggest drawback in the competition is inconsistency as a unit. Barring a young Richa Ghosh in the middle-order, none of the other batters have been able to sustain their form. In the first match against Pakistan, Jemimah Rodrigues came up with a match-winning half-century. However, she returned scores of 1 & 13 in the subsequent two matches. Likewise, Shafali Verma (33, 28 & 8) has failed to convert her starts. Leader of the pack Harmanpreet has scored 33 runs in three outings. The talented batting order which bats deep needs to come together to score big.On the eve of the match, India’s fielding coach Subhadeep Ghosh dismissed concerns about Harmanpreet’s form. “Harman is a big player. I think she is going to fire, and she is working hard. In fact, all the batters are spending a lot of time in the nets. I think all the girls are in good form and Harman also,” he said. It is the same story with the spinheavy bowling unit where players like Deepti Sharma and Radha Yadav haveoscillated between being game changers and ordinary. Their spin partner, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, is yet to cometo the party. To add to their woes, they have made dropping catches and