Highlights
- Harmanpreet Kaur has been named as the skipper of the Indian side
- Smriti Mandhana has been named as the vice captain of the Indian side
One of the biggest highlights of the Birmingham edition of the Commonwealth Games is the inclusion of women's T20I international which is expected to grab many eyeballs all across the globe. The T20I part of the multi-national event has been getting a lot of attention, especially from the local audience and high attendance is expected in every game that is to be played out. Surpassing all expectations, 1.2 million tickets have already been sold off and the India-Pakistan clash has been contributing to most of it.
Women's cricket is making its debut at the Commonwealth Games, and India and Pakistan will be clashing at the Edgbaston on July 31. The city is home to a substantial number of Indian and Pakistani-origin people. Birmingham Games CEO Ian Reid said the semifinals and final tickets have already been taken while he expects a sell-out crowd even for the India- Pakistan fixture.
"I am a big cricket fan myself. India is in the same group as Pakistan so that has caught the interest here in Birmingham. It is an iconic venue, your men's team recently played here over the last few weeks. So it would certainly be one of the highlights of the Games. The semifinals and final tickets have already been sold out probably with the expectation that India and England will be there. India and Pakistan will be close to capacity. We will see an uptick in the sale of tickets much closer to the event. So I expect that India-Pakistan game to be sold out soon", said Reid.
All 72 Commonwealth members have confirmed their participation in the multi-sporting event and almost 5000 athletes are expected to take part in the multi-nation sporting event.
Indian Squad: Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Smriti Mandhana (VC), Shafali Verma, Sabbhineni Meghana, Taniyaa Bhatia (wk), Yastika Bhatia (wk), Deepti Sharma, Rajeshari Gayakwad, Pooja Vastrakar, Meghna Singh, Renuka Thakur, Jemimah Rodrigues, Radha Yadav, Harleen Deol, Sneh Rana
(Inputs from PTI)
