Indian women’s batting line-up, relying too much on one player. On Monday, this showed most express when an unwell Mithali Raj sat on the sidelines and watched India's top six batsmen waste away starts. Even a gritty lower-order fightback proved insufficient to prevent Australia from going 1-0 up in the ODI leg of their tour. India women’s team scored 200 runs in the first innings against Australia women’s. For India women’s this will be do or die situation.

Raj's team-mates, however, will derive much confidence from her participation in catching drills and a fairly long hit in the nets on the eve of Thursday's second ODI, a must-win game to keep the three-match series alive. "I'm on a recovery path. I'm definitely better than what I was," Raj, the ODI captain, said at the pre-game press conference on Wednesday, minutes after she wrapped up her training session at the Reliance Stadium in Baroda.

The statement and her demeanour during training suggested she is most likely returning to the starting XI and taking back the captaincy from her deputy Harmanpreet Kaur. This was also her first media appearance during the series, as a bout of fever had forced her to depart from training early on Sunday.