The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Thursday announced the squads for the upcoming Women’s T20 Challenge match to be played ahead of the IPL Qualifier 1 at the Wankhede Stadium here.
The one-of-its-kind match will feature 26 players including 10 international stars from Australia, England and New Zealand.
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Australia’s captain Meg Lanning has recovered from her injury and will be a part of the Harmanpreet Kaur-led IPL Supernovas.
Attacking batswoman and India’s T20 vice-captain Smriti Mandhana will lead IPL Trailblazers.
Earlier, when BCCI announced the name of the captains for that women’s exhibition game, former Indian women’s cricket team captain and the present member of Committee of Administrators (CoA) Diana Edulji mentioned that it is a small significant step towards a prospective women’s cricket league in the future.
She said on that, “We are excited to announce the first-of-its-kind exhibition match involving our women cricketers. BCCI has been pulling out all stops to promote and nurture women’s cricket and this is a small yet significant step towards a prospective league involving women’s stars in the future. The IPL is the biggest and most popular league in the world and it has been a long-time endeavour to have a women’s league that can match the exuberance of IPL. Mithali Raj, Jhulan Goswami, Harmanpreet Kaur, Smriti Mandhana and Veda Krishnamurthy among others rubbing shoulders with foreign stars will be a unique experience and something that we have not witnessed here in India.”
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Squads:
IPL Trailblazers: Alyssa Healy (wk), Smriti Mandhana (c), Suzie Bates, Deepti Sharma, Beth Mooney, Jemimah Rodrigues, Danielle Hazell, Shikha Pandey, Lea Tahuhu, Jhulan Goswami, Ekta Bisht, Poonam Yadav, Dayalan Hemalatha
IPL Supernovas: Danielle Wyatt, Mithali Raj, Meg Lanning, Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Sophie Devine, Ellyse Perry, Veda Krishnamurthy, Mona Meshram, Pooja Vastrakar, Megan Schutt, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Anuja Patil, Taniya Bhatia (wk).
