BCCI announces India Women squad for Australia T20Is, Pooja Vastrakar, Sneh Rana not included

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has named India’s squad for the upcoming women’s five-match T20I series against Australia, commencing on the 9th of December. Harmanpreet Kaur will lead the side with dashing opening batter Smriti Mandhana deputizing for the influential all-rounder.

The Indian team handed a deserved national call-up to Andhra Pradesh's Anjali Sarvani after a series of impressive performances in the Inter-State Women's T20s. She had a decent outing for India A in the recently concluded Senior Women's T20 Challenger Trophy, where her side came up short against India D in the final. 

Apart from Anjali, Devika Vaidya makes her long-awaited return to the national squad after a hiatus of four years. Her last appearance for the Indian team came in an ODI series against England in 2018. Her only T20I participation came in 2014 against South Africa.

The all-rounder duo of Pooja Vastrakar and Sneh Rana are the notable absentees for the upcoming white-ball series against the Aussies. While the former was omitted from the squad due to an unspecified injury, no reason was provided for Rana's absence from the squad. 

Young talented wicketkeeper-batter Yastika Bhatia has also been included in the squad following her heroics in the Challenger Trophy final for India D. However, she will have to fight for a place in the starting eleven with Richa Ghosh.

Harmanpreet Kaur's India will play the first two matches of the series at the DY Patil stadium on December 9 and 11, before moving to the CCI for the remaining three fixtures on December 14, 17, and 20. The series will mark the build-up for the upcoming T20 World Cup in South Africa in February 2023.

India Squad for the Australia series: Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Smriti Mandhana (vc), Shafali Verma, Yastika Bhatia (wk), Jemimah Rodrigues, Deepti Sharma, Radha Yadav, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Renuka Singh Thakur, Meghna Singh, Anjali Sarvani, Devika Vaidya, S Meghana, Richa Ghosh (wk), Harleen Deol