Why Jemimah Rodrigues is not playing the IND W vs ZIM W 1st ODI 2026

Jemimah Rodrigues is not part of India Women’s playing XI for the first ODI against Zimbabwe Women at the BCA Stadium, Kotambi, Vadodara. The experienced batter is still working her way back from a high-grade right hamstring tear and has not been cleared to play. She has recently shared progress updates on her rehabilitation, which has included strength training and weightlifting sessions.

Zimbabwe Women won the toss and elected to bat first in the opening match of the series. Nomvelo Sibanda, the Zimbabwe captain, also confirmed that her player Nkomo is carrying a niggle and is being managed by the team’s support staff.

Why is Jemimah Rodrigues not playing in the 1st ODI?

Rodrigues is sidelined because of a high-grade right hamstring tear, an injury serious enough to keep her out of competitive cricket. She has been undergoing rehabilitation and has been posting updates showing her progress in the gym, including strength and weightlifting work, but she has not yet returned to match fitness.

What did the captains say at the toss?

Nomvelo Sibanda:

“We’re going to have a bat first. [Any particular reason?] Yeah, obviously we want to go and put runs up without any scoreboard pressure and trust our batters to do the job. [On Nkomo] She has a bit of a niggle, so we’re sorting that out. We’re obviously looking to carry on with the positives, draw momentum from that game into this series as well.”

Smriti Mandhana:

“[Your decision would have been?] Well, we would have batted first as well. Looks like a good wicket again overall and conditions are pretty good to go out and bat. But nevertheless I think it’s a good thing in a way where we’ll know what to chase. [Team news] We have a debut today, Jintimani Kalita, debut exciting talent. We saw her in the T20s in the nets and she had a very good India A series as well. So really excited for her and we have a couple of changes from the T20 side for sure. [Adapting to ODIs] Yeah, it’s been a while since we played one-day cricket. Again, we were prepping a lot for the T20 World Cup two, three months back and we’ve just been playing T20 cricket. But again, I think this format, we all know that we’ve done well in the past in this format. So yeah, I think it will take some time for us to adapt, but I’m sure that everyone in the net session yesterday practiced that. [On the conditions] Yeah, of course. We played on black soil; it’s red soil now. Last time when we played WPL here, it was more of black soil. Of course they’ve changed it and it’s back to red, which is known as Baroda soil more. So yeah, again that’s the only change which we found. Otherwise I feel it’s a brilliant ground to play cricket.”

What are the playing XIs for the IND W vs ZIM W 1st ODI?

India:

Smriti Mandhana (c), Shafali Verma, Pratika Rawal, Harmanpreet Kaur, Tejal Hasabnis, Deepti Sharma, Richa Ghosh (wk), Shree Charani, Kranti Gaud, Sayali Satghare and Jintimani Kalita.

Zimbabwe:

Beloved Biza, Sharne Mayers, Nyasha Gwanzura, Modester Mupachikwa(w), Chiedza Dhururu, Chipo Mugeri-Tiripano, Michelle Mavunga, Nomvelo Sibanda(c), Tendai Makusha, Loryn Phiri, Olinder Chare

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