BCCI announce squads for Women’s Challenger series

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has announced squads for the upcoming Women’s Challenger series in Indore. The All India Women’s Selection Committee picked the teams which also included the players from the squad which made it to the World Cup final earlier this year. India Blue, India Red and India Green will compete in the tournament which is all set to commence on January 4 next year.

All the teams will play against each other once after which the top two teams will lock horns for the ultimate glory on January 8. The Indian captain Mithali Raj has been named as the skipper of India Red side. The likes of Deepti Sharma, Sushma Verma, Mansi Joshi and Poonam Yadav will assist her in what looks to be a formidable side. The young girls in the team would surely love to rub shoulders with these world class players and learn a lot during the tournament.

Smriti Mandhana to lead India Blue

The heartthrob of the nation during the ICC Women’s World Cup Smriti Mandhana is all set to lead India Blue. Her team is boasted with the experience of Jhulan Goswami as Rajeshwari Gayakwad and Mona Meshram will also assist them. The young Jemimah Rodrigues has been included in the India Green side and it will be a huge tournament for the youngster who has set the stage on fire in the domestic circuit. Anuja Patil is the captain of the side which also includes Punam Raut, Ekta Bisht and Shikha Pandey.

All the teams look equally strong and the players would be looking to make the most of the opportunity provided. This tournament will also be important for the players as the Indian team will tour South Africa later in the month for ODI and T20I series. Harmanpreet Kaur and Veda Krishnamurthy are not part of any side as they are busy playing in the ongoing season of Women’s Big Bash League (WBBL).

Here are the squads:

India Blue: Smriti Mandhana (c), V R Vanitha, Mona Meshram, Tanushree Sarkar, Tania Bhatia (wk), D Hemalatha, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Radha Yadav, Jhulan Goswami, Pooja Vastrakar, Soni Yadav, Neenu Choudhary, Pratyusha C

India Red: Mithali Raj (c), Deepti Sharma, Priya Punia, Neha Tanwar, Nishu Choudhary, Sushma Verma (wk), Priyanka Priyadarshani, T P Kanwar, Poonam Yadav, Mansi Joshi, Sukanya Parida, Manali Dakshini, Bharti Fulmali

India Green: Anuja Patil (c), Jemimah Rodrigues, Punam Vaidya, Devika Vaidya, Monikha Das, Nuzhat Parveen (wk), Adila Khanam, Ekta Bisht, Preeti Bose, Shikha Pandey, Meghana Singh, Shannti Kumari, S Asha

Schedule of the Challenger series:

January 4: India Red vs India Blue

January 5: India Green vs India Red

January 6: India Blue vs India Green

January 8: Final