Cricket
BCCI announces India women's squad for series against South Africa
The Board for Control of Cricket in India has finally announced the squad for Indian Women's ODI and T20I series against South Africa. This comes just a week before the series is scheduled to start.
The ODI squad will be led by Mithali Raj with Harmanpreet Kaur as her deputy while Kaur will lead the T20I team with Smriti Mandhana to assist her. While six players – Challaru Pratyusha, Monica Patel, Simran Dil Bahadur, Yastika Bhatia, Ayushi Soni and Shweta Verma have earned their maiden India call-up, experienced campaigners including Shikha Pandey, Tania Bhatia, Ekta Bisht, and Veda Krishnamurthy faced the axe.
ODI Squad
Mithali Raj (c), Harmanpreet Kaur (vc), Smriti Mandhana, Jemimah Rodrigues, Punam Raut, Priya Punia, Yastika Bhatia, D. Hemalatha, Deepti Sharma, Sushma Verma (wk), Shweta Verma (wk), Radha Yadav, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Jhulan Goswami, Mansi Joshi, Poonam Yadav, C. Prathyusha, Monica Patel
T20I Squad
Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Smriti Mandhana (vc), Shafali Verma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Deepti Sharma, Richa Gosh, Harleen Deol, Sushma Verma (wk), Nuzhat Parveen (wk), Ayushi Soni, Arundhati Reddy, Radha Yadav, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Poonam Yadav, Mansi Joshi, C. Prathyusha, Simran Dil Bahadur
The Indian women would be in action for the first time since their T20 World Cup Final loss against Australia almost a year ago on 8th March. The entire series will be held at the Ekana International Stadium at Lucknow. According to reports the Uttar Pradesh Cricket Association (UPCA) is in talks with the BCCI to allow at least 40%-50% crowd inside the stadium.
Whilst the Indian players are currently quarantining in Lucknow, Cricket South Africa (CSA) is yet to announce their squad for the series which starts on 7th March, in a week's time.
