India might have suffered a big blow ahead of their marquee Women's T20 World Cup 2023 fixture against Pakistan as vice-captain Smriti Mandhana seems likely to be ruled out of the game.

The Women in Blue will open their tournament campaign against the arch-rivals on Sunday (February 12) and Mandhana looks doubtful to take part in it since she is "still recovering" from a finger injury.

The southpaw had sustained the injury while fielding during the warm-up clash against Australia earlier this week, which forced her out of the second warm-up tie against Bangladesh.

"Smriti has a finger injury and is still (in) recovery, so she won't play most likely. It's not a fracture and we're hopeful she will be available from the second game onwards," stand-in coach Hrishikesh Kanitkar said during a press conference on the eve of the match.

"You want to be playing the strong teams, the arch-rivals if you can call them that. We are totally prepared for what happens, the atmosphere is good," he added.

Kanitkar also confirmed that skipper Harmanpreet Kaur has recovered fully from the shoulder niggle she picked up during the tri-series against West Indies and South Africa.

"Harman is fit to play. She has batted for the last two days in the nets, she is fine," he stated.

The Indian team is slotted in Group B alongside England, Pakistan, West Indies and Ireland.

The Harmanpreet Kaur-led is coming into the T20 World Cup having lost the recent tri-series final to South Africa. They also suffered a defeat at the hands of Australia in the warm-up fixture before beating Bangladesh.

(With PTI Inputs)