The stage is set for Indian cricket to conquer world cricket. With the men facing mighty Australia touring India and ladies eyeing to participate in the upcoming world cup.
Recently, the squad was announced for the Indian women’s bench. The team will be led by Harmanpreet Kaur and will face Australia in the inaugural encounter. Hemlatha Kala, chairman of the women’s selection committee, assured the media representatives of the right balance and the zeal in the team.
She was accompanied by the captain who was confident of the team’s future and performance in the much-awaited tournament. The team has established faces leading the batting department with Smriti Mandhana and Veda Krishnamurthy taking the lead with their experience. The same story can be narrated for the bowlers. Poonam Yadav along with Shikha Pandey are the ones with more than 30 appearances in the shorter format of the game.
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However, as the chairman of the selection committee pointed out, it shall be naïve to underestimate the force of young guns like Shafali Verma and Arundhati Reddy. Many new faces have been added to the team after the 2017 world cup. Nonetheless, they have been nurtured into the team and have felt the international setting for a while. The team will avail of its learnings from 544 matches that all the players have played in totality. It is interesting to note that only Taniya Bhatia has been given a call to keep the wickets.
There is no wicket keeping backups in the squad as of now. The all-rounders for India are the most settled and learned group. Jemimah Rodrigues along with Deepti Sharma has a magnificent record in the T20s and shares great match experience.
World T20 Squad: Harmanpreet Kaur (captain), Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Verma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Harleen Deol, Deepti Sharma, Veda Krishnamurthy, Richa Ghosh, Tania Bhatia, Poonam Yadav, Radha Yadav, Rajeshwari Gaikwad, Shikha Pandey, Pooja Vastrakar, Arundhati Reddy.
It is evident that selectors and team management have tried to strike a balance between experience and young firework. Inclusion of players like Harleen Deol and Richa Ghosh reinforce the significance of domestic tournaments to knock a door into the national side. Richa was impressive in the challenger’s trophy. It must be understood that the strength of the Indian women’s team is bowling, and the spinners have led the team to great heights.
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Harmanpreet with her experience of playing in the WBBL shows confidence in spinners and enforced that any tactical change is unlikely to happen. She also mentioned the role of the team coach WV Raman in the team setting. She describes him as a calm influence for the team. The 16-member squad team shall take part in a tri-series prior to the world cup with only one addition.
The skipper assured media that with the current form of the players and recently concluded Challengers Trophy, they shall not have a hard time pondering on the best XI. The team shall play the hosts as the tournament kick starts at the glorious MCG. Fans and experts have high hopes from the team, and it is expected that unlike 2019, the start of 2020 shall bring a trophy into the Indian Cabinet.
A student who enjoys studying cricket more than anything else, keen to learn the insights of the women’s game.