India-W eye victorious finish to group stages as they lock horns with Pakistan
With a semi-final berth in the Women's Asia Cup sealed, India will take the yard for their final game of the group stage as they lock horns against Pakistan. Dubai will host to the big clash as the arch-rivals go head-to-head.
India will be riding high on confidence after Smriti Mandhana dished out an absolute masterclass in the clash against Hong Kong. However, the challenges regarding their middle-order didn’t get sorted as it was another ordinary day in the office for the Women in Blue. Despite solid shifts from Mandhana and Shafali Verma, the other batters only registered modest scores.
Pakistan did secure a win to start their Women’s Asia Cup campaign against Thailand. However, that wasn’t too convincing either. The Thailand bowlers pushed back Pakistan significantly as they were restricted to 119/9, courtesy of Suleeporn Laomi and Thipatcha Putthawong with the duo claiming three wickets each.
However, Pakistan’s bowlers were quick to dictate proceedings, restricting their opponents to 84/8. Sadia Iqbal led the charge for Pakistan with figures of 3/11. Since both India and Pakistan are battling middle-order woes, the Dubai surfaces could aggravate matters. One can expect this to be a tightly-contested thriller between the two formidable continental foes.
Venue Watch:
It goes without saying that the batters do not have much to be happy about on the track. The bounce on the surface has been extremely unpredictable with slower bowlers being the favourites. Most of the times, the balls have stayed extremely low while spinners have managed to extract some extra bounce from the surface. The ball has also been gripping to the pitch, adding to the worries of the batters.
Match details:
Match: India vs Pakistan, Match 9, ACC Women’s Asia Cup
Venue: Dubai International Stadium, Dubai
Date: 5th September, 2026
Time: 8:00 PM IST
Head-to-head:
Matches played – 17
India – 14
Pakistan - 3
Squads:
India:
Harmanpreet Kaur (captain), Smriti Mandhana (vice-captain), Shafali Verma, Bharti Fulmali, Deepti Sharma, Richa Ghosh (wicketkeeper), Gunalan Kamalini (wicketkeeper), Arundhati Reddy, Prema Rawat, Radha Yadav, Sree Charani, Renuka Singh Thakur, Nandni Sharma, Kranti Gaud, Pratika Rawal.
Pakistan:
Fatima Sana (captain), Ayesha Zafar, Eman Naseer, Eyman Fatima, Gull Feroza, Momina Riasat, Muneeba Ali Siddiqui (wk), Sadaf Shamas, Nashra Sundhu, Sadia Iqbal, Saira Jabeen, Shawaal Zulfiqar, Tuba Hassan, Umm-e-Hani, Waheeda Akhtar
