The women-in-blue after an agonizing early exit from the Women’s World Cup early this year responded strongly with a podium finish settling for a silver at the recently concluded Commonwealth Games. India next are scheduled to play 3 ODI and T20I games each against England in September starting from the 10th of September with the opening T20I.
Indian opener, Smriti Mandhana in an official release mentioned, “The year 2022 has been good for the women’s cricket team, and we are expecting to continue this momentum with the upcoming India tour of England. We are elated after winning the silver medal in the Commonwealth Games, we will look to replicating our success in the upcoming series as well.”
India’s ODI squad for England Series :
Harmanpreet Kaur (C), Smriti Mandhana (VC), Shafali Verma, Sabbhineni Meghana, Deepti Sharma, Taniya Sapna Bhatia (WK), Yastika Bhatia (WK), Pooja Vastrakar, Sneh Rana, Renuka Thakur, Meghna Singh, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Harleen Deol, Dayalan Hemalatha, Simran Dil Bahadur, Jhulan Goswami, Jemimah Rodrigues.
India’s T20I squad for England series :
Harmanpreet Kaur (C), Smriti Mandhana (VC), Shafali Verma, Deepti Sharma, Pooja Vastrakar, Jemimah Rodrigues, Sneh Rana, Renuka Thakur, Meghna Singh, Radha Yadav, Sabbhineni Meghana, Taniya Sapna Bhatia (WK), Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Dayalan Hemalatha, Simran Dil Bahadur, Richa Ghosh (WK), K.P. Navgire.
The series against England for sure will require India to carry on the gained momentum to hand upset to the English on their soil. The big series sees the return of pace veteran, Jhulan Goswami to the ODI squad but it is for one final time as on the day of the 3rd and final ODI of the series at the Lord’s cricket ground she is set to bid farewell to the game. Another notable addition to the squad is that off Dayalan Hemalatha who’d last played an ODI in the home series against South Africa in 2021 is back in the squad and is making her T20I return for the first time since 2019.
“The year 2022 has been good for the women’s cricket team, and we are expecting to continue this momentum with the upcoming India tour of England.”
~ Smriti Mandhana #CricketTwitter pic.twitter.com/kNeRRsJO1w
— Female Cricket (@imfemalecricket) August 30, 2022
All the 6 games of the series are scheduled to be played at different venues. The T20I opener will be played at the Riverside in Durham on the 10th of September and the remaining couple of T20I’s will be played on the 13th and 15th of September at the Incora County Ground, Derby and Bristol County Ground, Bristol respectively. The opening ODI game will be played at the 1st Central County Ground, Hove on the 18th of September with the next couple set to be played at Canterbury on the 21st and 24th at the Lord’s cricket ground.
After the Commonwealth Games, 3 players from the Indian team namely Smriti Mandhana, Jemimah Rodrigues (injured after a few games) and Deepti Sharma joined respective franchises at The Hundred, while the rest returned home to India.
Injured Jemimah Rodrigues has been named in the squad with the hope and expectation of her gaining fitness in time. The Indian team last took the field on the 7th of August, the day they’d worn silver medals around their necks on the English soil.
Eyeing the silverware at stake in the upcoming T20 World Cup that’ll be played early next year in South Africa, India will start working with a blueprint starting with their upcoming series against England wanting a title finish. The ODI series against England will be India’s 2nd with respect to the ongoing women’s championship, they’d begun the cycle against Sri Lanka in July in an away series with a 3-0 clean sweep.