Will Smriti Mandhana play today's match against West Indies Women? Here's an update

Indian Women's cricket team started their ICC Women's T20 World Cup campaign with a bang when they defeated Pakistan by 7 wickets. Jemimah Rodrigues and Richa Ghosh guided Team India to victory with their match winning knocks. Shafali Varma also gave support to the Indian innings through her quick fire 33 run knock. 

Team India didn't feel Smriti Mandhana's absence in the match as Yastika Bhatia who was playing in her place tried to give Team India the start they needed from ball 1. Smriti Mandhana damaged her finger while playing one of the warm up matches. Smriti was seen wearing a bandage in her damaged finger during the match and there is still a question mark that she will play today's match against West Indies or not. 

Team India bowling coach Troy Cooley has given an update on Mandhana's availability for the match against West Indies, “Yeah, she’s been working very hard. It’ll obviously be assessed after today. She did everything [that] was needed to be done today and from us, we’ll look at how she pulls up. But we’re pretty confident. She got through the session today and did everything she needed to do.”

Smriti Mandhana is one of the important pillars of the Indian Women's cricket team and she has been one of the key players from a long time who has been winning matches constantly. The left hand opener was in contention to win the ICC Women's T20 Player of the Year award but she lost to Australia's Tahlia McGrath. Smriti is also the third ranked batter in the ICC Women's Players T20I Rankings.

Smriti also became the most expensive player in the recently concluded Women's Premier League auction as she was bought for a whopping price of INR 3.40 crore by the Royal Challengers Bangalore. 

Smriti is expected to lead the side in the tournament alongside big players like Ellyse Perry, Richa Ghosh, Renuka Singh, Sophie Devine and Heather Knight. 

The Women's Premier League is set to begin from 4th March and will go on till 26th March. The Women's Premier League match will be hosted by Mumbai and all the matches will be played at the Brabourne Stadium and the DY Patil Stadium.