Indian Women’s Cricket Team are all set to begin their T20 campaign as they face South Africa today at the Ekana Stadium in Lucknow.
Indian women will be playing a T20 international match after 376 days, as they last played a game in this format in the 2020 World Cup finals against Australia in Melbourne.
India faced a setback yesterday as their T20I skipper Harmanpreet Kaur was ruled out of the first match due to her hip strain injury that she faced during the final ODI. It was decided that in the absence of Kaur, the team will be led by Smriti Mandhana.
In addition to that, five players from the Indian squad are very close to reaching a landmark or a milestone in their T20I career. The list includes names like top-order batter Jemimah Rodrigues, the sensational Shafali Verma, all-rounder Deepti Sharma, googly bowler Poonam Yadav and spinner Radha Yadav.
Time to show your support to the Women in Blue as they gear up for T20 Internationals after 376 Days.#INDvSA #INDWvSAW pic.twitter.com/7PLaq6FQKt
— Female Cricket (@imfemalecricket) March 19, 2021
The Indian women played the Women’s Challenger Trophy ( Mini version of WIPL) in the month of November where Trailblazers, led by Mandhana, defeated the Harmanpreet Kaur led, two-time champions, Supernovas.
In a public opinion survey done by us before the South Africa tour of India, it was seen that people were anticipating Shafali Verma to play in the ODI series for the Indian side. But she was picked only for the T20I squad and is yet to make her debut in the ODIs. After her terrific performance in the Women’s World Cup 2020, the 17-year-old has become a star already.
India and South Africa completed their 5-match ODI series on Wednesday, the 17th of March. The Proteas defeated the hosts by 4-1 to take home the ODI Trophy. The Indian side’s focus is now on clinching the T20I series.
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I’m a Senior Masters student pursuing Journalism and Mass Communication. An all time Cricket enthusiast. I could never play the game but always loved watching it, and now writing about it!