India should add extra bowling firepower vs Australia: Ian Bishop

Former West Indies pacer Ian Bishop feels hosts India should go in with an extra bowler against the mighty Australians in the Women's ODI World Cup semifinal on Thursday.

India and Australia clash in the second semifinal in Navi Mumbai on Thursday.

The combination of five batters, a wicketkeeper, and five bowlers -- three of them all-rounders -- has been India's trusted template through much of this World Cup cycle.

But its limitations were been brutally exposed in the league stage losses against South Africa, Australia and England. As a result India were forced to bring in specialist pacer Renuka Thakur in place of fast-bowling all-rounder Amanjot Kaur in their must-win game against New Zealand.

"I would like India to have that extra bowling depth and allow the batters to take responsibility, whatever that combination is," JioStar expert Bishop said on the eve of the second semifinal.

"With the batting depth of Australia, I would want to have that extra bowling combination. I don't like part-timers in such a big game. Back the batting at the top, they are specialists to get you runs, but always have that fallback, especially at the DY Patil, which looks to a good batting surface," he added. 

Australia possess a staggering batting depth, which makes them extremely difficult to beat. They have had different match winners through the tournament.

"You go in with five specialist bowlers, Australia are going to look to target even harder one or two of those to put pressure on India so that captain Harmanpreet (Kaur) then has to go, whether it's to herself for some part-time bowling.

"I like that comfort of knowing I have an all-rounder who can give me some runs if called upon, but who can also give me some specialist," Bishop added.

In a major blow to India, in-form opener Pratika Rawal has been ruled out of the tournament after injuring her ankle and knee in the last group match against Bangladesh.

The big-hitting Shafali Verma, who hasn't been in the best of form, has been called up as a replacement and is likely to open alongside Smriti Mandhana.

"It comes down to hoping that she's been working at her game. Obviously her run of form in recent times internationally hasn't been great," said Bishop.

"But again, it is a one-off game and she has to come in and her mindset like 'I got this opportunity to make a difference I'll try to be as relaxed as possible, but I'm going to go out there and make best use of this opportunity and fill the void adequately'."  The 58-year-old cricketer-turned-commentator added that he would like India to be "aggressive" in the field when they have the upper hand.

"I want to see teams like India be more aggressive. If wickets have fallen, don't sit back and wait for the next wicket to fall by pushing your fielders deep and allowing easy singles.

"Being aggressive in your field sets to complement your bowling, because we've seen that once or twice in this tournament, that if you allow, even with a collapse, any of those Australian batters, we saw that with Gardner, we saw that with Phoebe Litchfield, we saw that with Beth Mooney, that they are capable of going on to get hundreds and managing batting with their lower order, which is very strong to still get competitive scores.

"So you have to be willing and risk losing the game in order to win it by being aggressive," he added.