It won’t be an exaggeration to call the D.Y. Patil Stadium a cherished hub for India’s women’s cricket team. Over the years, whenever the Women in Blue played here, the fans turned up in huge numbers, rain or shine.

Things will be no different on Thursday when India faces New Zealand in what would effectively be a virtual quarterfinal of the Womens’ ODI World Cup 2025. Despite the festive fervour and forecasts of unseasonal rain, the clash is sold out.

India, which suffered three successive losses, would be hoping to find its mojo and inch closer to sealing a semifinal berth.

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India is yet to play an ODI at the ground and has won just three of its eight T20Is here. The Indian players, however, can take confidence from their Women’s Premier League experience at the venue. The team understands that the red-soil surface would offer runs, and thus, the onus will be on the batters to deliver the goods.

Despite being a tournament favourite and the host, things have been far from perfect for the Indian team as it has struggled to win key moments. After falling agonisingly short of chasing down England’s 289-run target in the last match in Indore, plenty of doubts remain on whether the side has the firepower to make the knockouts.

And, it is now that the senior batters – Smriti Mandhana, captain Harmanpreet Kaur, and Jemimah Rodrigues – need to step up. The captain has so far scored 141 runs in five games, whereas Smriti scored eighty-plus runs in the last two innings after a string of low scores.

At a venue familiar to her, the team management may turn to Jemimah again after leaving her out in Indore to accommodate an extra bowler in Renuka Singh Thakur.

So far, none of India’s top batters have been able to finish games, leaving the team heavily reliant on Richa Ghosh, and that’s something that the side needs to address ahead of a must-win match.

Whenever Smriti has fallen early, India’s strike rate has dipped significantly with Pratika Rawal and Harleen Deol around. But head coach Amol Muzumdar wasn’t willing to dwell on it. He, however, admitted that the team has had ‘some honest discussions’, and also revealed that the players have acknowledged their inability to convert fifties into hundreds.

New Zealand, on the other hand, comes on the back of a frustrating rain-marred campaign in Colombo, and will bank on the experience of Sophie Devine to put on a spirited show. The White Ferns captain has been the fulcrum of New Zealand batting, amassing 260 runs in three innings and will once again be the side’s trump card.

With a potentially high-scoring affair on the cards, the team bowling second could be put to the test once dew sets in. Regardless, India needs to cut out the noise, handle nerves and as the theme of the tournament suggests, show the ‘will to win’.