The 22-year-old has been in the form of her life, amassing seven half-centuries and one unbeaten century in her last 11 ODI innings dating back to second ODI against Australia in Vadodara last March.
The last time Indian Women faced England Women in an international game, it was surrounded by the controversy of the senior-most batter Mithali Raj dropped from the playing 11. This was at the ICC Women's World T20 in the Caribbean that Harmanpreet Kaur & Co lost the semifinals to Heather Knight's team three months ago.
The differences between them have been sorted out, both the players have moved on and a new head coach WV Raman has joined the the team. However, India will be without Kaur for the three ODIs, the first of which starts here on Friday.
Kaur aggravated an ankle injury sustained in New Zealand during the training sessions leading up to the home series. While she has been ruled out of the three ODIs, her availability for the ensuing T20Is in Guwahati will be determined on the basis of the rehab she does at National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru.
With one of the batting mainstays gone, India's hope will largely rest on the current form of the left-handed opener Smriti Mandhana. The 22-year-old has been in the form of her life, amassing seven half-centuries and one unbeaten century in her last 11 ODI innings dating back to second ODI against Australia in Vadodara last March.
Mandhana's ability to attack from the start, combine with the teenage batting sensation from Mumbai, Jemimah Rodrigues at the top of the order, has held the Indian batting together. It was evident in the just-concluded successful series in New Zealand. It is a delight to watch the way Mandhana goes about mercilessly taking on the opposition bowlers.
In flow, Mandhana makes batting look so easy. She now experience gained from the competitive Women's Big Bash League in Australia and the Women's Cricket Super League in England and it hashas taken her game several notches up.
It is not for nothing that the Mumbai-born Sangli-based Mandhana is perched at No. 1 in the ICC Women's ODI batting rank and sixth in T20s.
England captain Heather Knight rated Mandhana as a "very good player". Knight was Mandhana's teammate at Hobart Hurricanes in the recent WBBL and knows the Indian opener closely and will try to work that to England team's advantage.
"I have obviously played with Smriti in Hobart very recently. She played in my team, so I know her very well. I know she's a very good player. And having seen a lot of her, obviously, it gives us the chance to look at her weaknesses as well and try and figure out how we're going to exploit them in the series," Knight said here on Thursday.
Without Kaur, India's batting largely depend on Mandhana and Rodrigues with the 200-ODI veteran skipper Mithali Raj using her experience to bind the innings together.
India's middle-order will be tested big time by the Women's World Champions but it gives others including Deepti Sharma and wicketkeeper-bat Taniya Bhatia the opportunity to step up.
With the ODIs forming a part of the ICC Women's World Championship 2017-2020 cycle, it is crucial for India to win the series and accumulate as many points as there is the likelihood of losing them for not fulfilling the commitments with Pakistan.
It was a similar situation that India faced in the previous cycle. Forfeiting matches against Pakistan resulting in loss of points and India had to go through qualification round in Sri Lanka, which they won, to enter the 2017 Women's World Cup.
Currently fourth in the ICC Women's World Championship table, India will take confidence from their first ever ODI series win in New Zealand recently and the fact that they have won rubbers in South Africa and Sri Lanka in the last one year.
Top four in the table at the end of the cycle, along with hosts New Zealand, get direct entry into the 2021 World Cup while the other three slots will be filled through qualifiers.
Skipper Mithali said on the match eve: "It's a very important series for us. Points are at stake and I definitely want the team to get direct entry into the 2021 World Cup. It's important to get as many points as possible from the series.
"It's always been in our minds that we probably won't play Pakistan, and that's why whatever matches we play against whoever, we should be going in by keeping in mind that we need those points."
On her part, England skipper Heather Knight was keen on creating history, winning a first ever series on Indian soil. "Yes, we have talked about it. It's something we want to do as a team. We want to make history. When we came here last year, it was a slightly younger team. We weren't able to do that; we lost that series 2-1," the 28-year-old all-rounder said.
For the record, England are seventh in the eight-team table with 10 points, just ahead of Sri Lanka.
N-Zone
12 No. of points India have in the ongoing ICC Women's Championship. They are 4th on the table behind Australia (16), New Zealand (14) and South Africa (13)
INDIA IN WOMEN'S CHAMPIONSHIP 2017-20 SO FAR
Beat New Zealand 2-1 in NZ (Jan 2019)
Beat Sri Lanka 2-1 in SL (Sept 2018)
Lost to Australia in India 0-3 (March 2018)
Beat South Africa 2-1 in SA (Feb 2018)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
 "Smriti Mandhana")
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}