Welcome to the first ever episode of Shorts, a new format by us at The Second New Ball Cricket Podcast. Shorts is our attempt to try something different - bite-sized (well, certainly compared to our usual marathon shows) commentary about specific topics in cricket that catch our eye. For the debut episode, we discuss India's experimental team selections at the Women's World Cup, analysing their changes to personnel and the batting order as they attempt to qualify for the knockout stages. The results have been mixed so far and we debate whether it would have been worth it to stick with Shafali Verma instead of opening with Yastika Bhatia.
We also discuss the merits of India tearing up their existing plans just before the World Cup, the structural importance of the engine room of Pooja Vastrakar, Richa Ghosh, and Sneh Rana, the value of Harmanpreet Kaur's runs in this tournament, India's continued dependence on Smriti Mandhana, and a possibly exciting finish to the group stage with India's games against Bangladesh and South Africa.
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