Series Preview: Women’s Senior T20 Challenger Trophy - Head to head, squads, schedule

All India Women’s selection committee has recently announced teams for the Paytm Senior Women’s T20 Challenger Trophy, commencing from 4th January at Cuttack for the session of 2019-20. The series is definitely a preparatory opportunity ahead of T20 2020 world cup in Australia. This will help grooming the girls for the tournament as well as avail opportunities for the domestic players to get more involved in the shortest format of the game.

Senior Women's T20 Challenger Trophy 2019 — Senior Women’s T20 Challenger Trophy 2019-20

This is the second T20 tournament in women’s domestic season apart from Senior women’s T20 league which is an Inter-State Tournament. It will be played in a double round-robin tournament in comparison to the single round-robin format of the List-A tournaments. The tournament was first held in 2018 and the inaugural title was clinched by India Blue whereas India red were the runner ups, held in Bengaluru. India blue are the current title defenders.

Head to Head

India Blue v/s India Red
Played-3, IR-1, IB- 2

India Blue v/s India Green
Played-2, IB-1, IG- 1

India Red v/s India Green
Played-2, IR-2, IG- 0

Squads

Again this year 3 teams will be taking part, India A,B,C lead by Harmanpreet Kaur, Smriti Mandhana and Veda Krishnamurthy respectively. The match will be played in double Round robin format. Each Team has a 14 member squad, a mix of capped and uncapped players.

India A: Harmanpreet Kaur (C), Taniya Bhatia (WK), Shivali Shinde (WK), Jasia Akhtar, Priya Puniya, Deepti Sharma, Devika Vaidya, Sneh Rana, Mansi Joshi, Meghna Singh, Komal Jhanjhad, Meenu Mani, Radha Yadav, Bharati Fulmali.

India B: Smriti Mandhana (C), Sushma Verma (WK), R Kalpana (WK), Vanitha V.R, Jemimah Rodrigues, Anuja Patil, Poonam Yadav, Pooja Vastrakar, Shikha Pandey, Renuka Singh, Anjali Sarvani, Sushri Dibyadarshini, T.P. Kanwar, Richa Ghosh.

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India C: Veda Krishnamurthy (C), Nuzhat Parween (WK), Shafali Verma (WK), Yastika Bhatiya, D. Hemalatha, Harleen Deol, Manali Dakshini, Jincy George, Arundhati Reddy, Monica Patel, Vrushali Bhagat, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Tanushree Sarkar, Madhuri Mehta.

Schedule

Match 1- 4th January 2020
India A v India B
Barabati Stadium, Cuttack

Match 2- 5th January 2020
India B v India C
Barabati Stadium, Cuttack

Match 3- 6th January 2020
India C v India A
Barabati Stadium, Cuttack

Match 4- 7th January 2020
India B v India A
Barabati Stadium, Cuttack

Match 5- 8th January 2020
India C v India B
Barabati Stadium, Cuttack

Match 6- 09th January 2020
India A v India C
Barabati Stadium, Cuttack

Match 7- Final, 10th January 2020
TBD v TBD
Barabati Stadium, Cuttack

Every team looks equally capable and competitive. Poonam Raut holds the record for highest runs in Senior women’s T20 challenger trophy- 135 runs while Anuja Patil leads as the most successful bowler with the record of 8 wickets. However, big names like Mithali Raj and Jhulan Goswami will remain unavailable as they have retired from the shortest format of cricket. It will be an interesting contest to see new players taking up the responsibility and such a tournament also offers maximum opportunity to groom in T20 conditions eyeing the upcoming World Cup.