Team India recently announced its squad for the upcoming T20 World Cup that starts in February in Australia. The side includes the likes of Harmanpreet Kaur, Smriti Mandhana and also an uncapped 16-year-old cricketer Richa Ghosh.
30-year-old India player Shikha Pandey is a part of the world cup squad as well. Shikha, who debuted in 2014 against Bangladesh, has played 40 WT2OIs for India, has scored 175 runs and taken 26 wickets. She has also played 52 WODIs and 2 Tests for the country. She was also a part of the Indian Women’s Cricket Team that made it to the finals of the 2017 Women’s World Cup, the breakthrough tournament that changed the face of women’s cricket in India.
Shikha has been a part of the Indian Air Force (IAF) as well. She joined the IAF in 2011 and was commissioned as an Air Traffic Controller in June 2012.
Soon after India’s T20 World Cup squad was announced, appreciation poured in for all the players of the team on social media. IAF took to twitter to laud Shikha for the same.
@IAF_MCC tweeted, “#IAF Achievers: Sqn Ldr Shikha Pandey will be a pt of Indian Women’s cricket team in the ICC T-20 World Cup. She also features in ICC Women’s ODI Team of the Year 2019. “Playing for my country is a passion realized and donning the IAF uniform is a dream come true”, she says.”
#IAF Achievers: Sqn Ldr Shikha Pandey will be a pt of Indian Women's cricket team in the ICC T-20 World Cup. She also features in ICC Women's ODI Team of the Year 2019. "Playing for my country is a passion realised and donning the IAF uniform is a dream come true", she says. pic.twitter.com/ax5RPEpKaz
— Indian Air Force (@IAF_MCC) January 18, 2020
With just a month left, the T20 World Cup is all set to start down under on 21st February and will go on till 8th March, which also happens to be the International Women’s Day. With just a few days left for the teams to fly to Australia, all are working really hard for the grand tournament.