The Indian squad for the upcoming Women’s Asia Cup T20, to be held in Malaysia, was announced on Friday. The tournament featuring India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Thailand, and host Malaysia will be held from June 1 to 1. Each team will play against the other and the top two teams on the points table will qualify for the final.
Keeping in mind the preparation for the ICC Women’s World T20 later this year, India has named a full-strength 15-member squad for the ACC Women’s Asia Cup T20, to be played in Malaysia from June 1.
Veteran all-rounder Rumeli Dhar has been dropped from the squad after having last played against Australia in the T20I tri-series opener in Mumbai last month. Dhar, who made her international comeback after a six-year hiatus, in South Africa, didn’t feature in the remaining three games of the series for India. The hosts failed to qualify for the final of the tri-series, having won only one [against England] of their four games.
Spin pair of Ekta Bisht and Rajeshwari Gayakwad, who both missed India’s last T20I-tri-series, returned for the succeeding ODIs against England and have now been included in the T20I squad. Radha Yadav, who came in as a replacement for the injured pair, has also been dropped.
The tournament that will feature defending champions India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Thailand, and hosts Malaysia, will be taking place from June 1 to June 11, 2018. Each team will play against all five opponents once, and the top-two sides will clash in the final. Six-time champions India have never dropped a game in the Asia Cup in all the previous editions (across formats).
All matches involving Thailand and Malaysia will still not be counted as T20Is as the latest development announced by the ICC – that all their members will have international status in the shortest format – shall take effect from July 1, 2018, for women’s cricket.
India women’s squad: Harmanpreet Kaur (Captain), Smriti Mandhana (vice-captain), Mithali Raj, Jemimah Rodrigues, Deepti Sharma, Anuja Patil, Veda Krishnamurthy, Taniya Bhatia (wicket-keeper), Jhulan Goswami, Pooja Vastrakar, Shikha Pandey, Poonam Yadav, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Ekta Bisht, Mona Meshram.
