BCCI announces India's squad for Women's World Cup
Veteran batter Mithali Raj will lead Team India in the 2022 50-over Women's ODI World Cup and the preceding ODI series against New Zealand. Top-order batter Jemimah Rodrigues and pacer Shikha Pandey have been excluded from the squad. India play five ODIs and one-off T20I between February 9 and 24 in NZ before their World Cup campaign gets underway on March 6.
India squad for New Zealand ODIs and Women's World Cup: Mithali Raj (captain), Harmanpreet Kaur (vice-captain), Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Verma, Yastika Bhatia, Deepti Sharma, Richa Ghosh (wicket-keeper), Sneh Rana, Jhulan Goswami, Pooja Vastrakar, Meghna Singh, Renuka Singh Thakur, Taniya Bhatia (wicket-keeper), Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Poonam Yadav. Standby Players: Sabbhineni Meghana, Ekta Bisht, Simran Dil Bahadur.
The Indian selectors have overlooked senior players, Jemimah Rodrigues and Shikha Pandey. Jemimah has been going through a lean patch for quite some time and has been struggling to score runs during the country's recent tours. She scored 22 runs in five games during the home series against South Africa and on the England tour. Pandey picked two wickets in three ODIs in 2021.
Sneh Rana has retained her spot in India's squad. She returned to India set-up earlier this year during their tour of England. She scored an unbeaten 80 runs during the second innings of the one-off Test against England and picked 4/131. She picked two wickets in ODIs. India have also named two young pacers, Meghna Singh and Renuka Singh in their squad.
India will start their World Cup campaign against bitter rival Pakistan on March 6 at the Bay Oval, Tauranga. India will be up against NZ on March 10 before facing West Indies on March 12. Thereafter, they will play England (March 16) and Australia (March 19). India will face Bangladesh (March 22) and South Africa (March 27) in their last two group stage games.
India have made nine appearances in fifty overs World Cup with the first one coming in 1978. They are yet to win a WC title but have finished runners-up twice in 2005 (losing to Australia) and 2017 (losing to England). India have reached the semi-finals on three occasions - 1997, 2000, and 2009. In 2020, India reached their maiden T20 World Cup final.
India Women's squad for one-off T20I: Harmanpreet Kaur (Captain), Smriti Mandhana (vice-captain), Shafali Verma, Yastika Bhatia, Deepti Sharma, Richa Ghosh (wicket-keeper), Sneh Rana, Pooja Vastrakar, Meghna Singh, Renuka Singh Thakur, Taniya Bhatia (wicket-keeper), Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Poonam Yadav, Ekta Bisht, S. Meghna, Simran Dil Bahadur.
India's schedule for the New Zealand series: February 9th: Only T20I, venue: McLean Park, Napier February 11th: 1st ODI, venue: McLean Park, Napier February 14th: 2nd ODI, venue: Saxton Oval, Nelson February 16th: 3rd ODI, venue: Saxton Oval, Nelson February 22nd: 4th ODI, venue: John Davies Oval, Queenstown February 24th: 5th ODI, venue: John Davies Oval, Queenstown
