The Bhutan Women’s Cricket Team, organized by the Bhutan Cricket Council Board has been an associate member of the International Cricket Council since 2001, however, it was only 8 years later, in 2009, that they made their debut, against Qatar at Kuala Lumpur on the 3rd of July.
Bhutan was granted full Women’s T20 International status in April 2018 after which, they have played just 4 matches owing to the covid pandemic. These 4 matches were played in 2019 against Hong Kong, Indonesia, Myanmar, and Thailand across 13-16 January, and regrettably, for Bhutan, they lost all 4. Consequently, as of now, their international win % is 0 but obviously, this data is not enough to judge their performance and caliber.
Since then, they have not played any international match but will soon be seen in the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup Asia Qualifier scheduled to be played in the United Arab Emirates between 22nd and 28th November. Before this, Bhutan will also be playing 2 warm-up matches against hosts UAE in Ajman.
Top players – Bhutan Women’s Cricket Team
1. Dechen Wangmo
Dechen Wangmo was the player of the match of the first official WT20 played by Bhutan against Hong Kong in which she picked 3/17. The 28-year-old was awarded despite ending up on the losing side. This signifies the value of her performance which was an impeccable one under difficult conditions. Furthermore, she went on to perform well in the remaining matches too.
2. Yeshey Choden
29-year-old Choden was also a part of Bhutan’s 4 matches and will now be captaining her team in the upcoming tournament. This alone is sufficient to show that Choden has plenty of expectations pinned to her and hopefully, will be able to expand her personal record and get her team across the line.
Importance – Bhutan Women’s Cricket Team
Bhutan, despite having just 4 official WT20 matches, has played a decent level of cricket. They kick-started their international campaign by winning their first match against Qatar by 42 runs, however, this soon went downhill as they lost their remaining 4 group matches, finishing 9th out of 12 places. In the 2011 edition too, their performance was similar as they won just one group game, against Oman. This kind of pattern has been pretty repetitive with the Bhutan Women, however, the occasional excellence has shown that they are a team with immense scope and just require more exposure and several individual performances simultaneously. Winning this tournament will take them a step closer to competing in the World Cup – the ultimate dream of every cricketer.
Squad – Bhutan Women’s Cricket Team
Yeshey Choden (c)
Tashi Cheki
Ngawang Choden
Sonam Choden
Karma Dema
Anju Gurung
Sonam Paldon (wk)
Karma Samten
Pema Seldon (wk)
Dechen Wangmo
Yeshey Wangmo
Tshering Yangchen
Eva Somsel Yangzom
Tshering Zangmo
Fixtures – Bhutan Women’s Cricket Team
Bhutan vs Kuwait – 22nd November
Bhutan vs Nepal – 23rd November
Bhutan vs United Arab Emirates – 25th November
Bhutan vs Hong Kong – 26th November
Bhutan vs Malaysia – 28th November
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