After the retirement of Mithali Raj, Harmanpreet Kaur who was named as the captain of the Indian contingency is all set to lead India in the Commonwealth Games, Birmingham starting July 28. Smriti Mandhana has been named as the vice-captain of the Indian side. This is the first time that women's T20 cricket has been featured in the Commonwealth calendar. Before this, a men's ODI tournament was played at the 1998 Kuala Lumpur Commonwealth Games.
Wicket-keeper Taniya Bhatia, who has a strike rate of under-100 in the T20I format, was named in the Indian women's squad for the upcoming Commonwealth Games 2022. On the other hand dashing batter, Richa Ghosh has been put on the stand-by list. What raised many eyeballs was Sneh Rana's comeback to the national side who didn't play in the Sri Lanka series owing to an injury that kept her at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) for rehabilitation. With Tania Bhatia on the side, it is almost given that Yastika Bhatia will go into the contest as India's first-choice stumper.
Veteran leg-spinner Poonam Yadav, who is no longer a certainty in the squad, is also on the standby list along with seamer Simran Dil Bahadur. India is in Group A with Australia, Barbados, and Pakistan. Sri Lanka, England, New Zealand, and South Africa are placed in Group B. India will play their first match against Australia on July 29.
Before Commonwealth Games, Birmingham, the Indian women's team seems ready and raring to go. A lot is at stake at the multi-nation event and the Indian women's team will want to play out of their skin and fetch their first Commonwealth Games gold medal. Indian women toured Sri Lanka and now they have effectuated a 3-0 loss over the hosts in a 3-match ODI series.
India squad: Harmanpreet Kaur (C), Smriti Mandhana (VC), Shafali Verma, S. Meghana, Taniyaa Bhatia (Wk), Yastika Bhatia (Wk), Deepti Sharma, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Pooja Vastrakar, Meghna Singh, Renuka Thakur, Jemimah Rodrigues, Radha Yadav, Harleen Deol, Sneh Rana.
