Women's Asia Cup 2026, India vs Pakistan: Preview and stats
What's the story
India and Pakistan will clash in India's final league match of the Women's T20 Asia Cup 2026 on September 5. The match will be played at the Dubai International Stadium. India Women have already qualified for the semi-finals, while Pakistan remain in contention. Notably, IND-W are expected to dominate this Group A contest considering their strong performance in this tournament. For PAK-W, if they lose, they will need to win their final group game against Hong Kong Women.
H2H
India have dominated the encounters against Pakistan: H2H record
The Women's Asia Cup started in 2004 as an ODI tournament, but was changed to T20 format after the fourth edition.
IND-W have been the most successful team in this competition, winning seven titles.
In the Women's T20 Asia Cup, India and Pakistan have faced each other six times with India winning five of those encounters.
Overall in T20Is, IND-W own a win-loss record of 14-3 from 17 games versus PAK-W, as per Cricinfo.
Recent matches
India's top-order batters have been in great form
India Women already confirmed their semi-final berth with two big wins against Thailand and Hong Kong.
Smriti Mandhana and Shafali Verma have been in top form, with Mandhana scoring a record-breaking century against Hong Kong on Thursday.
Other players like Pratika Rawal, Richa Ghosh, and captain Harmanpreet Kaur will look to spend more time at the crease after not being able to convert their starts into big scores.
Team analysis
Pakistan Women need to improve their batting
Pakistan Women have won their only match against Thailand and are still in contention for the semi-finals. However, they need to improve their batting drastically to compete with India Women.
In their last game against Thailand, PAK-W were under pressure during the powerplay, losing three wickets.
An over-reliance on opener Muneeba Ali and bowling all-rounder Fatima Sana (captain) is also a major concern for the team.
Statistics
Player focus: A look at the stats
Mandhana owns a tally of 4,681 runs from 173 matches (167 innings) at 30.79. She recorded her 2nd hundred versus Hong Kong (50s: 35). As per Cricinfo, Mandhana is closing in on 100 sixes (95).
Shafali is closing in on 3,000 runs in WT20Is. She owns 2,993 runs from 113 games at 28.23.
From 151 games, Deepti Sharma has claimed 174 scalps for IND-W at 19.29.
Pakistan's Muneeba Ali is set to make her 99th appearance. She has 1,872 runs at 21.03.
Probable XIs
Here are the probable teams
India Women: Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Verma, Pratika Rawal, Richa Ghosh (wk), Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Bharti Fulmali, Deepti Sharma, Prema Rawat, Nandni Sharma, NR Shree Charani, Kranti Goud.
Pakistan Women: Muneeba Ali (wk), Shawaal Zulfiqar, Gul Feroza, Ayesha Zafar, Sadaf Shamas, Fatima Sana (c), Umm-e-Hani, Eyman Fatima, Tuba Hassan, Nashra Sandhu, Sadia Iqbal.
Poll
