BCCI announces squads for the Senior Women's T20 Challenger Trophy

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has announced the squads for the Senior Women’s T20 Challenger Trophy 2018. The T20 tournament will be played in Alur, Karnataka starting from August 14 to August 21. The three teams in the competition, India Blue, India Green and India Red were named during the recent meeting of the Women’s Selection Committee, as stated by the press release from the BCCI.

A total of 13 players got selected in each of the three teams, which includes a combination of both the experienced and youngsters. Earlier the BCCI discontinued the 50-over Women’s Challenger Trophy and announced its new version being converted to a T20 competition in the 2018-19 Women’s domestic season. The competition will be played both at the senior as well as the Under-23 level of Women’s cricket. The Women’s Under19 system will also be contesting a similar type of tournament in its upcoming schedule.

Mithali, Deepti and Veda named as captains

The domestic T20 competition will be working as an ideal preparation for the upcoming ICC Women’s T20 World T20, in West Indies later this year. The ODI skipper and the most experienced Indian women’s cricketer Mithali Raj was named the captain of the India Blue team. The team also consists of talented players including the likes of Poonam Yadav, Mansi Joshi, Anuja Patil along with the other women cricketers.

20-year old Deepti Sharma was announced as the skipper of the India Red side. The squad also includes the likes of Punam Raut, Mona Meshram, Ekta Bisht among the popular players. While the bowling attack also looks to be decent one with the inclusion of experienced right-arm medium pace bowler, Shikha Pandey.

The explosive women duo of Harmanpreet Kaur and Smriti Mandhana were not named in any of the three teams, due to their involvement in the ongoing edition of the Kia Super League in England. On the other hand, another explosive all-rounder Veda Krishnamurthy was named as the captain of the India Green team. Veda’s side also includes some talented players like Jemimah Rodrigues, Monikha Das, Rajeshwari Gayakwad and many others. The bowling attack will be led by the most experienced Indian Women’s fast bowler Jhulan Goswami.

India Blue: Mithali Raj (C), Vanitha VR, D Hemalatha, Neha Tanwar, Anuja Patil, Saima Thakor, Taniya Bhatia (WK), Radha Yadav, Preeti Bose, Poonam Yadav, Keerthy James, Mansi Joshi, Suman Gulia

India Red: Deepti Sharma (C), Punam Raut, Disha Kasat, Mona Meshram, Harlene Deol, Tanushree Sarkar, Ekta Bisht, Tanuja Kanwer, Shikha Pandey, Shanti Kumari, ReemaLaxmi Ekka, Nuzhat Parveen (WK), Aditi Sharma

India Green: Veda Krishnamurthy (C), Jemimah Rodrigues, Priya Punia, Devika Vaidya, Monikha Das, Arundathi Reddy, Sushma Verma (WK), Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Fatima Jaffer, Sushree Dibyadarshini, Sukanya Parida, Jhulan Goswami, Sajana S