Pratika Rawal Ruled Out - Discarded Opener Replaces Her for Women's World Cup Semi-final

India suffered a huge blow during the ongoing Women's World Cup 2025. During a rain-affected match against Bangladesh, opener Pratika Rawal hurt her ankle after landing severely while fielding during Bangladesh's innings. Her teammates and support staff helped her get off the field when she fell in agony.

After getting hurt during Sunday's match against Bangladesh, opener Pratika Rawal has been ruled out of the remainder of Women's Cricket World Cup 2025. She has been in good form recently, which makes her absence a huge blow for the team.

While she has been ruled out, Pratika Rawal replacement has been announced before Thursday's semifinal matchup with Australia. There are certain players who could have replaced Rawal in India's Playing 11. However, the selectors made a surprise choice to replace her.

Can Shafali Verma be Pratika Rawal Replacement?

For the Indian squad, which will play Australia in the second semifinal on Thursday at the DY Patil Stadium, Pratika Rawal injury is a huge setback. However, the selectors have picked the discarded opener Shafali Verma as the best replacement for Pratika Rawal at this stage. Because of her inconsistency, Verma was not selected for the ICC Women's World 2025 earlier.

However, she has been in excellent form recently. In the India A warm-up match against New Zealand, she smashed 70 runs off just 40 balls. Shafali has also displayed good form after getting dropped from India's senior team. She has scored loads of runs in domestic cricket but was still not considered for the Women's World Cup earlier. To everyone's surprise, she wasn't even picked in the reserves for India's squad for Women's World Cup 2025.

However, Shafali has been chosen as Pratika Rawal injury replacement for the remaining tournament. The decision comes as a surprise since Shafali wasn't a part of reserves. But the selectors have decided to go in with an X-factor player for the important game against Australia.

Despite not having done well in international cricket recently, Shafali possesses the ability to change the course of the game with her ability to score runs quickly at the top. She has the ability to destroy any bowling attack on her day. The young India opener will have a huge challenge in hand as India plays defending champions Australia, who are still unbeaten this tournament.

Pratika Rawal in Women's World Cup 2025

Pratika played a key role in India's path to the semi-finals. She is the second-highest run-scorer in the tournament behind her opening partner, Smriti Mandhana, one of the best women cricketers. The Women in Blue have benefited greatly from the left-right combination. Pratika scored a fine century against the White Ferns to secure India's spot in the semifinals.

In seven games, she has scored 308 runs at an average of 51.33, including a century and a single fifty. In the absence of Rawal, India will be under pressure when they play the best women's cricket team in the world, Australia. They will be looking for Shafali to give India a good start at the top.

Meanwhile, there's a chance it will be another rainy semi-final, and if there's no result, Australia will automatically qualify for the final of ICC Women's World Cup 2025 as they finished above India in the league stage.