Indian women's cricket team will be without their star opener Shafali Verma when they enter Dy Patil Stadium for the first T20I game against West Indies on Sunday. After a heavy ODI series defeat against Australia, the Women in Blue are set for the early preparations for the 2025 World Cup at home.
The BCCI's selection committee announced India's squads for the white-ball series against West Indies and as expected made some changes to their team. Shafali Verma failed to make a return after being dropped from the team for the recent Australia tour and now she faces a big question mark over her future.
Harmanpreet had backed Shafali to make a swift return after the snub for the Australia tour but refused to state the youngster's future when asked about it in the pre-match press conference in Navi Mumbai. Harmanpreet asked the journalist to ask questions about Shafali's future to the 'right persons' signalling to the selection committee.
“I would say, ask the right person," Harmanpreet Kaur said. "I can only talk about the team, (the) team is here and what (all) things we can do to win this series. Regarding Shefali or any other player, (it is) better to ask the right persons. I am not the right person to answer that. You can definitely ask the right person.”
However, Shafali backed uncapped Raghvi Bist and Nandini Kashyap to do well against West Indies. Both Bist and Kashyap are expected to make their international debuts against West Indies after an impressive show in the Senior Women's T20 Challenger Trophy.
"Both of them (have) done really well in the (Senior Women's T20) Challenger Trophy and because of that they have got the opportunity," Harmanpreet Kaur added. "For them, it's a great platform and I hope they will do really well for the team because if we see, we have very limited girls. (It is) good to see them doing really well in the domestic format and hopefully, they will take the responsibility and start doing well for the country at (the) international level."
India women's T20I squad for West Indies series
Harmanpreet Kaur (C), Smriti Mandhana (VC), Nandini Kashyap, Jemimah Rodrigues, Richa Ghosh (WK), Uma Chetry (WK), Deepti Sharma, Sajana Sajeevan, Raghvi Bist, Renuka Singh Thakur, Priya Mishra, Titas Sadhu, Saima Thakor, Minnu Mani, Radha Yadav.
