Mona Meshram replaces Smriti Mandhana in the World Cup Qualifier squad

The India Women’s team has named Mona Meshram as the replacement for Smriti Mandhana for the ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier to be played next month. Mandhana injured herself and that has ruled her out of action for a substantial period. Mona was not picked in the 14-member squad that the selectors named for the CWC 2017 Qualifiers to be played in Sri Lanka.

Mandhana who was one of the two Indian players featuring in the Women’s Big Bash League in Australia along with Harmanpreet Kaur ruptured an Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) on the left knee during a game for her team Brisbane Heat in the WBBL. After diagnosis and scans, it is being suggested that she undergoes a surgery which will keep her off the field and thus will also miss the all-important tournament.

Earlier the left-handed batswoman had made the cut into the Indian team ahead of Railways’ opener Punam Raut having scored 265 runs in the domestic T20 tournament. Raut, who hasn’t managed to break into the team once in the last one year, had 274 runs to her name in the same league but the selectors continued to overlook her.

Mona hadn’t quite been in the best of forms for the India Women’s team and could score only 1 run in the last match she represented the team in against West Indies Women at Vijaywada in November 2016.

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The Indian team is in the Group A along with hosts Sri Lanka, Ireland, Zimbabwe and Thailand in the ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier 2017 that will be played from February 7-21. The top 4 teams from the Super Six stage will advance and be a part of the World Cup 2017 along with the 4 automatically qualified teams Australia, England, New Zealand and West Indies. The World Cup will be played in England from June 26-23.

India Women squad for World Cup Qualifier: 

Mithali Raj (Captain), Hamrnapreet Kaur (Vice-captain), Veda Krishnamurthy, MD Thirushkamini, Devika Vaidya, Sushma Verma (Wicketkeeper), Jhulan Goswami, Deepti Sharma, Shikha Pandey, Sukanya Parida, Poonam Yadav, Ekta Bisht, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Mona Meshram.