The 39 players have been named for the upcoming Women’s T20 Challenge, organized by the Board Of Control For Cricket In India. The tournament is scheduled to be played from May 6 in Sawai Man Singh Stadium, Jaipur. The 39-players will be featured for the three teams which included 12 International players. Harmanpreet Kaur, Smriti Mandhana and Mithali Raj will lead the Supernovas, Trailblazers and Velocity respectively. While the Supernovas and Trailblazers are already existing, Velocity is the new team added this year.

Last year BCCI took the initiative and organised a one-off exhibition match during the playoff of Indian Premier League; which ended in a last-ball thriller between Supernovas and Trailblazers. International players like Meg Lanning, Megan Schutt, Ellyse Perry, Alyssa Healy, Beth Mooney, Suzie Bates, Lea Tahuhu, Danielle Wyatt were featured in that game. However, this year surprisingly no Australia players have been included in the squad. Along with them, South Africa players are also not included as they will have a series against Pakistan which is going start on the same day.

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However, Cricket Australia’s Female High Performance Manager Shawn Flegler had told earlier to cricket.com.au that the Australia Cricket Board would give permission to all the Australia players participating in any exhibition matches which will be played this year.

“It’s a great opportunity for the players, and to see a women’s IPL get off the ground would be a great thing for the game more broadly,” Flegler had said earlier.

Meanwhile, a report on Cricket Australia’s website was seen with the headline “Aussies in frame for women’s IPL games”, which certainly suggested that the players are going to take part in the upcoming tournament. On the other hand, it was also written in the report that the Australia team will attend a pre-Ashes camp which will begin in Brisbane on May 13, after two days of the Women’s T20 Challenge final.

Their exclusion could affect the standard as they are the World T20 Champion, having world-class players like Ellyse Perry, Meg Lanning, Alyssa Healy, Megan Schutt etc. Though, their exclusion gave the chance to other players like Jahanara Alam, Shakera Selman, Hayley Matthews, Chamari Athapaththu, Natalie Sciver etc. who are going to feature in the tournament.

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Sri Lanka’s Chamari Athapaththu, England’s Natalie Sciver, New Zealand’s Lea Tahuhu and Sophie Devine will be played under Harmanpreet Kaur’s captaincy in the team Supernovas which will be coached by WV Raman, the current India Women’s Team Coach.

Smriti Mandhana-led Trailblazers will get the service of overseas players like Stafanie Taylor and Shakera Selman from West Indies, Suzie Bates from New Zealand and Sophie Ecclestone from England. Biju George will coach them.

On the other hand, New Zealand’s Amelia Karr, England’s Danielle Wyatt, West Indies’ Hayley Mathews and Bangladesh’s Jahanara Alam will be featured in Mithali Raj-led team Velocity. Former India captain Mamta Maben will coach them.

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The tournament will be played in a single round-robin way, rounded off with the final on May 11 between the top two teams.

Squads:

Supernovas:

Harmanpreet Kaur (C), Anuja Patil, Arundhati Reddy, Jemimah Rodrigues, Mansi Joshi, Poonam Yadav, Priya Punia, Radha Yadav, Taniya Bhatia (WK), Chamari Atapattu (SL), Lea Tahuhu (NZ), Sophie Devine (NZ), Natalie Sciver (ENG)

Trailblazers:

Smriti Mandhana (C), Bharti Fulmali, Dayalan Hemalatha, Deepti Sharma, Harleen Deol, Jasia Akhtar, Jhulan Goswami, R. Kalpana (WK), Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Suzie Bates (NZ), Sophie Ecclestone (ENG), Shakira Selman (WI), Stafanie Taylor (WI)

Velocity:

Mithali Raj (C), Devika Vaidya, Ekta Bisht, Komal Zanzad, Shafali Verma, Shikha Pandey, Sushma Verma (WK), Sushri Dibyadarshini, Veda Krishnamurthy, Amelia Kerr (NZ), Danielle Wyatt (ENG), Hayley Matthews (WI), Jahanara Alam (B’DESH)

Schedule:

May 6 – Supernovas vs Trailblazers

May 8 – Trailblazers vs Velocity

May 9 – Supernovas vs Velocity

May 11 – Final