MUMBAI: India excluded big-hitting Shafali Verma in favour of the consistent Pratika Rawal, while including fit-again pacer Renuka Singh Thakur in their squad for the Women’s ODI World Cup at home. On Tuesday, at the BCCI headquarters here, chief selector of the Indian women’s team Neetu David, flanked by captain Har manpreet Kaur, announced the squad for the three ODIs against Australia, which precedes the World Cup, with just one change in both sides.
The Australia series begins on Sept 14, while the World Cup begins on Sept 30 with the opening match between India and Sri Lanka in Bengaluru. TOI has learnt that the Indian women’s team will undergo a weeklong camp in a few days at Visakhapatnam, one of the venues of the World Cup, where Harmanpreet & Co. play two matches, against South Africa on Oct 9 and Aus on Oct 12. Vice-Captain
Smriti Mandhana was also present at the selection meeting.
Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SUBSCRIBE NOW!Shafali, currently part of the India A team in Australia, has been excluded from both sides, as the selectors preferred Rawal, who has done exceptionally well in 14 ODIs, in which she scored 703 runs at an average of 54.07, with one hundred and five fifties.
David, though, asserted that Verma remained in the mix.
“Shafali played the Australia A series. She’s in the system. We’ve got our eyes on her. Hope she plays a lot more and gains experience, it’ll help serve India in the 50-over format in the future. We want Shafali to have a long career,” David asserted.
Seam bowling allrounder Amanjot Kaur has been given additional time to recover from her niggles as she is currently stationed at the Centre of Excellence ahead of the World Cup, with Sayali Satghare named in the squad to face Australia.
“She’s one of the important players. We’ve rested her for the Australia series so that she can fully be available for the World Cup,” Harmanpreet said.
Squads: For World Cup: Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Smriti Mandhana (vc), Pratika Rawal, Harleen Deol, Deepti Sharma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Renuka Singh Thakur, Arundhati Reddy, Richa Ghosh (wk), Kranti Goud, Amanjot Kaur, Radha Yadav, Shree Charani, Yastika Bhatia (wk), Sneh Rana.
For ODIs against Australia: Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Smriti Mandhana (vc), Pratika Rawal, Harleen Deol, Deepti Sharma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Renuka Singh Thakur, Arundhati Reddy, Richa Ghosh (wk), Kranti Goud, Sayali Satghare, Radha Yadav, Shree Charani, Yastika Bhatia (wk), Sneh Rana
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