The Indian women’s cricket team is set to tour England beginning from June 16. The two teams first square off in a four-day Test match followed by three ODIs and three T20Is. For the upcoming tour, the selection committee of BCCI led by Neetu David has announced India’s squad for the tour of all formats.
Rookie wicketkeeper-batsman Indrani Roy from Jharkhand has managed to get herself her maiden Test and ODI call-up for India. Indrani was rewarded for her string of good scores, which included 103 against Chhattisgarh, 86 against Karnataka, and 49 against Railways in the final.
The selection panel made a course correction with teen batting sensation Shafali Verma and seasoned pacer Shikha Pandey making it to all three squads after omitted them from squads during the series against South Africa.
At the same time, senior left-arm spinner Rajeshwari Gayakwad missed out as she is recovering from COVID-19. The 29-year-old Gayakwad is also nursing an injury. Monica Patel and C. Prathyusha have been dropped from the squad altogether in the team selection meeting, which was keenly followed by BCCI president Sourav Ganguly and Secretary Jay Shah.
As expected Mithali Raj will lead the team for the one-off Test and three ODIs while Harmanpreet Kaur will take over the reins during the three T20 Internationals. This tour will be the first assignment for newly appointed coach Ramesh Powar.
Test & ODI Squad: Mithali Raj (captain), Smriti Mandhana, Harmanpreet Kaur (vice-captain), Punam Raut, Priya Punia, Deepti Sharma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Shafali Verma, Sneh Rana, Taniya Bhatia (wicket-keeper), Indrani Roy (wicket-keeper), Jhulan Goswami, Shikha Pandey, Pooja Vastrakar, Arundhati Reddy, Poonam Yadav, Ekta Bisht, Radha Yadav.
T20I Squad: Harmanpreet Kaur (captain) Smriti Mandhana (vice-captain), Deepti Sharma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Shafali Verma, Richa Ghosh, Harleen Deol, Sneh Rana, Taniya Bhatia (wicket-keeper), Indrani Roy (wicket-keeper), Shikha Pandey, Pooja Vastrakar, Arundhati Reddy, Poonam Yadav, Ekta Bisht, Radha Yadav, Simran Dil Bahadur.