India Women begin their ICC Women's Championship campaign against Zimbabwe in Vadodara

India begin their 2025–2029 ICC Women's Championship campaign on Friday, with the first points of the cycle on offer against Zimbabwe at Kotambi Stadium in Vadodara

The 1st ODI starts at 2:00 PM IST, three days after India completed a 3-0 sweep of the T20I leg in Raipur. Those three matches carried no standing in the Championship. These three do.

India have not played a fixture in the current cycle. Zimbabwe, brought in for the first time after the competition was widened from ten teams to eleven, have played nine of theirs.

Smriti Mandhana leads the side, with Deepti Sharma as her deputy, from a 15-player squad the BCCI named on 6 October.

A cycle India are yet to start

The Championship is a round-robin of one-day internationals across eleven teams, each of them playing eight three-match series, four at home and four away.

The top seven, plus the hosts, qualify automatically for the 2029 Women's Cricket World Cup. The rest are sent to a qualifying tournament.

On the table as it stood on 14 October, India were eleventh on no matches and no points — not a verdict on the side, simply a campaign that had not begun. Friday ends that.

Zimbabwe arrive with ground to make up

Zimbabwe are ninth, with one win from nine matches, two points and a net run rate of -2.731.

This is their first tour of India and the first bilateral series the two nations have played. Josephine Nkomo captains an unchanged 15 from the squad that faced West Indies in September and October.

Sharne Mayers, Beloved Biza, Chipo Mugeri-Tiripano and Modester Mupachikwa are among those who travelled.

What the T20Is showed

India took the opener by four wickets, chasing Zimbabwe's 114 for 5 inside 15.4 overs, then the second by nine wickets, reaching 104 for 1 in 8.5.

The third was the widest of them: 216 for 7 against 124 for 7, a 92-run win built on Harmanpreet Kaur's unbeaten 91 from 41 balls and Shafali Verma's 69 off 37.

Nandani Sharma took 3-18. Mayers top-scored for Zimbabwe with 60 and Biza made 44, the only real resistance across the three nights.

Mandhana wants the same level carried over

"Good domination in the way we dominated in all three matches. That is what we will look to do in the ODI matches," Mandhana said after the sweep.

"That's what we have been speaking about in the dressing room, and that's what we will look to do in Vadodara in the ODI matches," she added.

She was less settled on the bowling. "The bowlers did execute their plans. Maybe yes, some things we can work on. We will take it back and work on it," she said.

Dew is already on her mind. "It is looking good for sure. We are looking at how the dew is playing a part. It will play a big part as we approach the Champions Trophy," she said.

A different squad for the longer format

The ODI 15 is not the T20I one. Pratika Rawal, Harleen Deol, Tejal Hasabnis, Yastika Bhatia, Vaishnavi Sharma, Sayali Satghare and Renuka Thakur all come in.

Shafali Verma, vice-captain in the T20Is, returns to the ranks with Deepti Sharma taking that role. Richa Ghosh and Bhatia are the wicketkeeping options.

Harmanpreet Kaur, Sree Charani, Kranti Gaud and Nandani Sharma carry over from Raipur, so the side that finished the T20I series has a sizeable presence in the one that starts this one.

The second and third ODIs follow at the same ground on 25 and 28 October, both starting at 2:00 PM IST.

Catch the match live updates, highlights, and full match coverage on CricRadio. Get fast, accurate, and ad-free updates throughout the game. Download the CricRadio app from the Play Store to stay connected. You can also get the live scores of cricket series directly on the CricRadio website for real-time coverage.