India Women’s squads for England tour announced: Verma gets Test call-up, Gayakwad misses out

May 15, 2021

India Women’s squads for England tour announced: Verma gets Test call-up, Gayakwad misses out Image

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced the India Women squad for the upcoming tour to England. They will be playing one Test, three ODIs and three T20Is. Mithali Raj will be at the helm for both Test and ODIs, while Harmanpreet Kaur will lead in T20Is. The tour kick-starts with a Test match in Bristol from 16 May.

Shikha Pandey and Taniya Bhatiya have been recalled to the side, while Rajeshwari Gaikwad failed to make a cut as she is yet to fully recover from the Covid-19.

Indrani Roy's exploits in the Women's Senior One-Day Trophy have earned her maiden call-ups for both Test and ODIs. Roy scored 456 runs at an average of 76, including a century against Chhattisgarh.

Sneh Rana too made her comeback to the women's team after five years. Rana played an instrumental role in the Railways’ run to the final. With 18 wickets, she finished the tournament as the leading wicket-taker of the tournament.

India Women will also have a new coach, in Ramesh Powar. Powar replaced WV Raman, who was sacked after a home series loss to South Africa earlier this year. Raman had replaced Powar in early 2019.

India Women squad:

Test and ODIs: Mithali Raj (c), Harmanpreet Kaur (vc), Smriti Mandhana, Punam Raut, Priya Punia, Deepti Sharma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Shafali Verma, Sneh Rana, Taniya Bhatia (wk), Indrani Roy (wk), Jhulan Goswami, Shikha Pandey, Pooja Vastrakar, Arundhati Reddy, Poonam Yadav, Ekta Bisht, Radha Yadav.

T20Is: Harmanpreet Kaur (c) Smriti Mandhana (vc), Deepti Sharma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Pooja Vastrakar, Shafali Verma, Harleen Deol, Sneh Rana, Ekta Bisht, Taniya Bhatia (wk), Indrani Roy (wk), Shikha Pandey, Radha Yadav, Richa Ghosh, Arundhati Reddy, Poonam Yadav, and Simran Dil Bahadur.