BCCI’s All-India women’s selection committee has announced the squads for the upcoming ODI and T20I series against South Africa. This series will mark the return of international women’s cricket in the country after a gap of almost a year.
C Pratyusha, Yastika Bhatia, Ayushi Soni, Swetha Verma, Monica Patel, and Simran Dil Bahadur will mark their international debut with this series. However, experienced players such as Ekta Bisht, Anuja Patil, Veda Krishnamurthy, Taniya Bhatia, and Shikha Pandey were not picked for the squad. Mithali Raj is set to lead India in the ODIs, while Harmanpreet Kaur will captain the hosts in the T20I series.
Team India will undergo a full-fledged training session just a day before the first ODI on March 7. The five-match ODI series will be followed by a three-match T20I series, which will begin on March 20. While there is a gap between all the ODIs, the first two T20Is will be played on consecutive days. Since all the matches will take place at the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium in Lucknow, both the teams have arrived in the city for the mandated 6-day long quarantine period and practice camps.
Squad for the ODI series: Mithali Raj (Captain), Smriti Mandhana, Jemimah Rodrigues, Punam Raut, Priya Punia, Yastika Bhatia, Harmanpreet Kaur (vice-captain), D. Hemalatha, Deepti Sharma, Sushma Verma (wicket-keeper), Swetha Verma (wicket-keeper), Radha Yadav, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Jhulan Goswami, Mansi Joshi, Poonam Yadav, C. Prathyusha, Monica Patel.
Squad for the T20I series: Harmanpreet Kaur (Captain), Smriti Mandhana (vice-captain), Shafali Verma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Deepti Sharma, Richa Ghosh, Harleen Deol, Sushma Verma (wicket-keeper), Nuzhat Parveen (wicket-keeper), Ayushi Soni, Arundhati Reddy, Radha Yadav, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Poonam Yadav, Mansi Joshi, Monica Patel, C. Prathyusha, Simran Dil Bahadur.