BCCI announces squads for India Women’s tour of Australia

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) named the squads for India Women’s upcoming tour in Australia, which will comprise three ODIs, as many T20Is and a one-off Test, scheduled to be played at the Western Australia Cricket Association Ground in Perth.

All of India’s stars who recently participated in the inaugural Hundred – Smriti Mandhana, Harmanpreet Kaur, Jemimah Rodrigues, Deepti Sharma, and Shafali Verma – have been included in both squads, while Taniya Bhatia has missed out in the T20I squad, though she is a part of the Test and ODI setup.

Top-order batter Priya Punia, wicketkeeper Indrani Roy, medium-pacer Arundhati Reddy and spinner Radha Yadav, who were all a part of the women’s squad against England for the one-off Test at Bristol in June this year have missed out on finding a place in the Test and ODI squad this time, while Yastika Bhatia and Renuka Singh Thakur have been named in the 18-member red-ball squad.

The team is expected to leave for Australia towards August end and will have to serve a mandatory quarantine of fourteen days upon their arrival before they can start their training. The ODI series gets underway from September 19 in Sydney with following two games scheduled in Melbourne on September 22 and 24, followed by India’s first-ever day-night Test in Perth, to be played from September 30 to October 3, before the three T20Is on October 7, 9 and 11 in Sydney.

The women’s team played their first Test in seven years earlier this year, against England, which ended in a draw, while they lost both ODI and T20I series 2-1.

India Women’s squad for one-off Test & ODI series: Mithali Raj (Captain), Harmanpreet Kaur (vice-captain), Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Verma, Punam Raut, Jemimah Rodrigues, Deepti Sharma, Sneh Rana, Yastika Bhatia, Taniya Bhatia (wicket-keeper), Shikha Pandey, Jhulan Goswami, Meghna Singh, Pooja Vastrakar, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Poonam Yadav, Richa Ghosh, Ekta Bisht.

India Women’s T20I squad: Harmanpreet Kaur (Captain), Smriti Mandhana (vice-captain), Shafali Verma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Deepti Sharma, Sneh Rana, Yastika Bhatia, Shikha Pandey, Meghna Singh, Pooja Vastrakar, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Poonam Yadav, Richa Ghosh (wicket-keeper), Harleen Deol, Arundhati Reddy, Radha Yadav, Renuka Singh Thakur.