The debut of women’s cricket at the Commonwealth Games is now only a sleep away as live action in the T20 format unfolds tomorrow at 11 AM local time from Edgbaston with a rich cricketing rivalry in the making that between Australia and India.
Team India suffered a double blow before their flight to Birmingham with a couple of Indian players testing positive for Covid-19. As per the protocol, both players were moved into strict isolation, and only after returning a couple of Covid negative reports will be allowed to fly to Birmingham and regroup with the team. It later was learned that it first was Sabbhineni Meghana and days after in a player more it was Pooja Vastrakar who’d tested positive for the virus.
With India’s opening game against Australia only a few hours away, there’s a piece of very pleasing news in Sabbhineni Meghana set to join the team on Thursday night after returning two Covid negative reports and is in line to be available for selection tomorrow. It’s believed that on Wednesday she cleared her Covid test and on the very first flight was sent to Birmingham.
Good News:
S Meghana is out of quarantine and is flying to Birmingham today.
She could be available for India’s first group game against Australia on Friday.#CricketTwitter #B2022 #Birmingham2022 pic.twitter.com/Dai6jGfjtG
— Female Cricket #B2022 (@imfemalecricket) July 28, 2022
Pooja Vastrakar continues to remain in isolation as she’s yet to test negative and then will have to pass a mandatory fitness test. It’s understood that not before Sunday Vastrakar can fly to Birmingham which means she’ll only be available for India’s last game against Barbados and as it’s highly expected with India to qualify for knockout India will continue to use the services of Pooja Vastrakar. India surely is happy with Sabbhineni Meghana, but for sure would have loved to have seen their premium all-rounder in Pooja Vastrakar also on the same flight, but wasn’t to be.
INDIA’S SQUAD FOR THE GAMES :
Harmanpreet Kaur (C), Smriti Mandhana (VC), Shafali Verma, Sabbhineni Meghana, Taniya Bhatia (WK), Yastika Bhatia (WK), Deepti Sharma, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Pooja Vastrakar, Meghna Singh, Renuka Thakur, Jemimah Rodrigues, Radha Yadav, Harleen Deol, Sneh Rana.
STANDBY PLAYERS : Richa Ghosh, Poonam Yadav, Simran Bahadur.
GROUP A : India, Australia, Pakistan, Barbados
GROUP B : England, New Zealand, South Africa, Sri Lanka
Team India’s Schedule for Commonwealth Games
JULY 29 : India v Australia (11 AM local, 4:30 PM IST)
JULY 31 : India v Pakistan (11 AM local, 4:30 PM IST)
AUGUST 3 : India v Barbados (6 PM local, 11:30 PM IST)
SEMI FINALS : Aug 6 (11 AM local, 4:30 PM IST) and (6 PM local, 11:30 IST)
BRONZE MEDAL MATCH : Aug 7 (10 AM local, 3:30 PM IST)
GOLD MEDAL MATCH : Aug 7 (5 PM local, 10:30 PM IST)
*All matches will be played at Edgbaston
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