BCCI Retains Mithali Raj For T20I Series Against Kiwis, Veda Krishnamurthy Gets Axe

Well, BCCI announced their ODI and T20I squads for the upcoming tour against New Zealand. They asked Mithali Raj to lead the troop in One Day Internationals while Harmanpreet Kaur will be leading the team in the shorter version of the game. What comes as a surprise was Mithali Raj has been included in the T20I format as well.

Recently, we came across Mithali Raj being dropped from the semifinal clash in the ICC T20I World Cup 2018, which led to a huge controversy. But, surprisingly, they still stuck to her despite the veteran confirmed that she won’t be playing in the next T20I World Cup.

Veda Krishnamurthy dropped, Priya Punia receives a call-up:

Speaking of the inclusion of Mithali Raj in the shorter format, the respective selector quoted that Mithali Raj is still available for the selections despite not playing the next World Cup. Further, the source quoted that there is no debate on the selection of Mithali Raj, as the captain or a player.

Meanwhile, they confirmed that Veda Krishnamurthy has been dropped purely on the basis of her poor form. She has been replaced by Priya Punia, who performed exceptionally in the recent domestic tournaments.

“There was no debate about Mithali’s position or captaincy during the meeting. She is still in good form in the T20 format. Mithali has only said that she is not going to play in the next T20 World Cup. But, she hasn’t retired from the format yet. So, we had no hesitation in selecting her,” one of the selectors told CricketNext. Veda was dropped purely on basis of the form and replaced by Priya Punia for the T20s,” she added.

Well, the latest unit will travel New Zealand under the watchful eyes of the new head coach WV Raman. They will be playing three ODIs and as many T20Is against New Zealand starting January 24. The three T20Is will be double-headers along with the men’s T20Is in February.

Squads:

ODI: Mithali Raj (Captain), Harmanpreet Kaur, Jemima Rodrigues, Smriti Mandhana, Punam Raut. Deepti Sharma, Tanya Bhatia, D Hemlata, Mona Maheshram. Ekta Bisht, Punam Yadav, Rajeshwari Gaekwad, Jhulan Goswami, Mansi Joshi and Shikha Pandey

T20I: Harmanpreet Kaur (Captain), Smriti Mandhana, Mithali Raj, Deepti Sharma, Jemima Rodrigues, Anuja Patil, D Hemlata, Mansi Joshi, Shikha Pandey, Tanya Bhatia, Poonam Yadav, Ekta Bisht, Radha Yadav, Arundhati Reddy and Priya Punia