India Women's Squad For England Tour Announced; Mithali Raj And Harmanpreet Kaur Named Captains

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) All-India Senior Women’s Selection Committee on Friday announced the India women’s squad for the upcoming tour of England where the team will play a one-off Test match and a series of 3 ODI matches and 3 T20I matches. Mithali Raj was named captain for the one-off Test and the ODI series, while Harmanpreet Kaur will lead in the T20Is.

The tour will begin from June 16 and it was confirmed by the BCCI secretary Jay Shah on International Women’s Day 2021, that the Indian women’s team will be playing a one-off Test match on this tour of England, which was their first since 2014. India women had last played a Test against South Africa that year and their last Test match against England came in that same year as well.

Mithali Raj To Captain India Women In Test And ODI, Harmanpreet Kaur Named Captain For T20Is

India women recently returned back to cricketing action after more than a year at home, when they faced South Africa in a series of ODI and T20I matches. However, the rustiness of the players and lack of preparation showed as India lost both the ODI and T20I series pretty badly.

This tour of England was supposed to take place in June and July of 2020, but had to be postponed due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and was supposed to consist of four WODIs and two WT20Is.

Now with things getting better and India men’s team scheduled to tour England for the World Test Championship final, which will be played against New Zealand at the Rose Bowl, Southampton from June 18 onwards and the five-Test series against England; the BCCI and the ECB decided to have the India women’s team tour the UK as well.

The only Test match will be played in Bristol from June 16-19. Bristol will also host the first ODI on June 27, while the second ODI, a Day-Night affair will be played at Taunton on June 30^th, and the last and third ODI will be played on June 3^rd.

The three-match T20I series will be played on July 9^th in Northants, July 11 in Hove, and July 15 in Chelmsford.

Here is the India women’s squad for the tour of England:

Squad for Test & ODI:

Mithali Raj (Captain), Smriti Mandhana, Harmanpreet Kaur (vice-captain), Punam Raut, Priya Punia, Deepti Sharma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Shafali Verma, Sneh Rana, Taniya Bhatia (wicket-keeper), Indrani Roy (wicket-keeper), Jhulan Goswami, Shikha Pandey, Pooja Vastrakar, Arundhati Reddy, Poonam Yadav, Ekta Bisht, Radha Yadav.

Women squad for T20I:

Harmanpreet Kaur (Captain) Smriti Mandhana (vice-captain), Deepti Sharma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Shafali Verma, Richa Ghosh, Harleen Deol, Sneh Rana, Taniya Bhatia (wicket-keeper), Indrani Roy (wicket-keeper), Shikha Pandey, Pooja Vastrakar, Arundhati Reddy, Poonam Yadav, Ekta Bisht, Radha Yadav, Simran Dil Bahadur.

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