After Saturday's triple-header comes the double-header on Sunday. T20 World Cup debutants Netherlands will start the day against Bangladesh. from 9.30am GMT in Birmingham, where England trounced Sri Lanka on the opening day. Bangladesh will feature in their seventh straight T20 World Cup. They won just one game out of four in the 2024 edition. In the recent tri-series in Scotland. Netherlands beat Bangladesh by eight runs before Bangladesh avenged the loss with a 13-run win over Netherlands. Their overall head-to-head stands at 4-1 in favour of Bangladesh.
In one of the most eagerly awaited contests of the tournament. India will face Pakistan from 1.30pm GMT, also in Birmingham. The rivalry, however, is one-sided as ODI champions India lead the head-to-head 6-2 in T20 World Cups. 13-3 in T20Is overall. There will be immense pressure on both sides to start well in what's being termed the group of death.
Netherlands (probable): 1 Heather Siegers. 2 Phebe Molkenboer, 3 Babette de Leede (capt & wk), 4 Sterre Kalis, 5 Robine Rijke, 6 Frederique Overdijk/Iris Zwilling, 7 Sanya Khurana, 8 Hannah Landheer, 9 Myrthe van den Raad/Caroline de Lange, 10 Silver Siegers, 11 Isabel van der Woning
Bangladesh (probable): 1 Dilara Akter. 2 Juairiya Ferdous, 3 Sobhana Mostary, 4 Nigar Sultana (capt & wk), 5 Shorna Akter, 6 Sharmin Akhter, 7 Ritu Moni, 8 Rabeya Khan, 9 Marufa Akter, 10 Fariha Trisna, 11 Sanjida Akter Meghla
India's main selection decisions will be around picking one of Yastika Bhatia. Bharti Fulmali, and choosing two pace bowlers out of Arundhati Reddy, Renuka Singh and recent debutant Nandani Sharma.
India (probable): 1 Smriti Mandhana. 2 Shafali Verma, 3 Yastika Bhatia, 4 Jemimah Rodrigues, 5 Harmanpreet Kaur, 6 Richa Ghosh (wk), 7 Deepti Sharma, 8 Arundhati Reddy/Renuka Singh, 9 Kranti Gaud, 10 Shree Charani, 11 Nandani Sharma
Pakistan captain Fatima Sana had a ball hit back into her knee when she was bowling in the nets on Saturday. She said later at the press conference she would "hopefully" be fine to play the opener.
Pakistan (probable): 1 Muneeba Ali. 2 Gull Feroza, 3 Ayesha Zafar, 4 Saira Jabeen, 5 Rameen Shamim, 6 Aliya Riaz, 7 Fatima Sana (capt), 8 Eyman Fatima, 9 Diana Baig, 10 Nashra Sandhu, 11 Sadia Iqbal
Bangladesh middle-order batter Shorna Akter is just 19 and will be turning out for her 50th T20I on Sunday. This will be her third T20 World Cup. it was in the last ODI World Cup that she made jaws drop with her boundary-hitting ability. Seven of her 11 sixes in T20Is have come this year. in which she has struck at 130.72 from 13 innings. Bangladesh's finishing abilities could well rest on her young shoulders on Sunday and beyond.
For Netherlands, the spotlight might be on some of the bigger names such as Sterre Kalis, Babette de Leede. Silver Siegers, but Bangladesh will also be wary of the older Siegers sister, Heather Siegers. Heather scored a half-century and took home three wickets not too long ago for their first T20I victory over Bangladesh. Heather also has a T20I century to her name. had also starred with her all-round game to take down USA when Netherlands had qualified for this World Cup.
Shafali Verma, just 22, is set to turn out her in fourth T20 World Cup. The Player of the Match from the ODI World Cup final is yet to score a half-century in the T20 edition. will be itching to get going against Pakistan after she and Smriti Mandhana failed to put on substantial opening partnerships in the bilateral series recently. If Friday evening was anything to go by for the Birmingham surface. Shafali would want to emulate Danny Wyatt-Hodge with a big score of her own.
Fatima Sana will be expected to step up for Pakistan in more ways than one. The other Fatima - Eyman Fatima - at the age of 21 could be another big threat. She was also part of the ODI World Cup side last year. has played only six T20Is but for a strike rate of over 150. She has come through the Under-19 side - their leading scorer from the 2023 World Cup -. her penchant for hitting sixes as a finisher could prove to be a headache for India in the death overs.
After a glorious. sunny Friday in Birmingham, the forecast for Sunday is cloudy but with no rain, and temperatures are expected to be between 13 and 19 degrees Celsius.
"Definitely we'll be expecting a lot of runs because we watched yesterday's game. batters dominating all over the game, so we're expecting that our batters will do the same for us." Bangladesh captain Nigar Sultana
"The crowd is also a very good crowd. I saw a lot of times that they are supporting the good cricket -- it doesn't matter.. Pakistan, India, Australia - they're just supporting the cricket, the good shots, the good bowling." Pakistan captain Fatima Sana
"We are here for cricket and we only talk about cricket. Except cricket we don't talk anything and I don't even think we know anything except cricket. Cricket has been our dream from day one. we only discuss cricket and for tomorrow's game we are only thinking about it's another game which we are going to play" India captain Harmanpreet Kaur on handshakes
"It's not always easy. When I tell people from university, I play cricket, they think I play croquet because they just don't know cricket. So they would ask: 'Why do you go to the gym so often? You play croquet.' Also, my friends would say: 'Good luck. I hope you hit home runs today.' But I guess what also makes our team so close is that we love this game so much. we know that we're a special group of people in the Netherlands that actually know the game and love this game." Netherlands captain Babette de Leede
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