Harmanpreet Kaur’s form with bat in focus as India look to salvage pride in final ODI against Australia

India Women's cricket team led by Harmanpreet Kaur looks to end 9-match losing streak against Australia in 3rd ODI.

India women’s cricket team captain Harmanpreet Kaur’s form with the bat will be in focus as the team looks to salvage pride and end a nine-match losing streak at home against a dominant Australia in the third and final ODI in Mumbai 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 the first innings and she was not required to bat in the second innings. In the two ODIs against Australia, her scores were 9 and 5. Australia has taken an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match series.

India have not beaten Australia even once in the 50-over format since February 2007.

While India made the most of the favourable home conditions in the one-off Test match, the home team’s frailties have come to the fore again in white-ball cricket in the last two ODIs. While the Indian team was ordinary with the ball in the first ODI, which they lost by six wickets, Kaur's side dropped as many as seven catches in the second game, as the Australian side get away with a three-run win in the second game.

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 having an aggressive batter in the top order has given the hosts a lot of firepower. The pressure will be on the likes of Amanjot Kaur and Deepti Sharma, who could not finish the game for India, even though the hosts needed to get almost run-a-ball to win in the second ODI.

The cliched old adage of ‘catches win matches’ came to the fore again after India dropped at least seven chances, and head coach Amol Muzumdar admitted after the game that Kaur's team remains a work in progress.