MUMBAI: The BCCI on Tuesday announced the 15-member Indian squad for the Women’s T20 World Cup 2024, scheduled to be held from October 3 in the UAE, after it was moved out of Bangladesh recently due to a violent student protest and change of regime there.
As expected, the experienced and bighitting Harmanpreet Kaur will lead the familiar-looking side, with star batter Smriti Mandhana named as her deputy. Besides the duo, explosive opener Shafali Verma, middle-order batter Jemimah Rodrigues and allrounder Deepti Sharma will lead India’s batting charge, while seamer Renuka Singh, who could be a handful under lights in the UAE, and Pooja Vastrakar will be the pace spearheads.
Deepti, left-arm spinner Radha Yadav and off-spinning allrounder Shreyanka Patil, who suffered a fractured finger in her left hand during an Asia Cup game against Pakistan in July, will be the three spinners, as India aim to win their maiden World Cup title.
Wicketkeeper-batter Yastika Bhatia (out of action since the opening T20I against Bangladesh in Sylhet in April due to a knee injury) and Shreyanka have been included in the squad subject to fitness. Yastika scored 204 runs in eight matches at an average of 25.50 for the Mumbai Indians and Shreyanka took 13 wickets in eight matches at an average of 12.07 and economy rate of 7.30 to play a key part in RCB’s title triumph in WPL 2024, and will be critical to India’s chances.
The 23-match event will feature the top 10 teams in the world divided into two groups of five each. Group A includes defending champions Australia, India, Pakistan, New Zealand and Sri Lanka, while Group B comprises Bangladesh, England, South Africa, West Indies, and Scotland.
Each team will play four league matches, with the top two teams from each group moving into the semifinals.
The Indian team is also scheduled to play two warm-up games against South Africa and West Indies, before launching their campaign against New Zealand on October 4 in Dubai. They will then play arch-rivals Pakistan at the same venue on October 6.
SQUAD: Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Smriti Mandhana (vc), Shafali Verma, Deepti Sharma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Richa Ghosh (wk), Yastika Bhatia (wk)*, Pooja Vastrakar, Arundhati Reddy, Renuka Singh Thakur, Dayalan Hemalatha, Asha Sobhana, Radha Yadav, Shreyanka Patil*, Sajana Sajeevan
Travelling Reserve: Uma Chetry (wk)
Non-Travelling Reserves: Raghvi Bist, Priya Mishra
(*Subject to fitness)
