Star players including Mithali Raj and Jhulan Goswami to skip Senior Women’s Challenger Trophy
The Board of Control for Cricket in India announced four squads for the upcoming Senior Women's One-day Challenger Trophy which is scheduled to be played in Vijaywada from December 4 to 9. The board decided to give an option of skip for all the senior Indian Women team players who recently participated in the Women’s Big Bash League and also to two senior members of the team, ODI and Test skipper Mithali Raj and premier fast bowler Jhulan Goswami. The Challenger Trophy is being treated as a tournament to give the women players who did well in the recently organised Senior Women’s One Day tournament, won by the Railways, a chance to showcase their talent and force their way into the national side which will tour New Zealand ahead of the Women’s ODI World Cup in the Kiwis nation in March next year. Among all the players given an option to skip, only Radha Yadav, who played for the Sydney Sixers Women in the WBBL decided not to skip the tournament as she wants herself to be seen in the ODI format as well and not only as a T20 specialist. So the left arm low bowler is going to use this platform to force her way into the Indian side for the World Cup. Harmanpreet Kaur, Smriti Mandhana, Jemimah Rodrigues, Poonam Yadav, Shafali Verma, Deepti Sharma, and Richa Ghosh are the players along with Jhulan and Mithali that are skipping the tournament. Sneh Rana, Taniya Bhatia, Shikha Pandey, and Pooja Vastrakar have been made the captain of the India A, India B, India C and India D squads respectively. All the matches will be played at ACA Cricket Complex-DVR Ground. Squads India A: Sneh Rana (capt), Shivali Shinde, Lakshmi Yadav, Vrinda Dinesh, Jhansi Lakshmi, Yastika Bhatia, Sushree Dibyadarshani, Mehak Kesar, B Anusha, S Kalal, Ganga W, D Kasat, Renuka Singh and Simran Dil Bahadur India B: Taniya Bhatia (capt), Anju Tomar, Riya Chaudhary, Palak Patel, Shubha Satish, Harleen Deol, Humaira Kazi, Chandu V Ram, Rashi Kanojiya, G Trisha, Soumya Tiwari, Meghna Singh, Sarala Devi, Saima Thakoor and Ramyashri India C: Shikha Pandey (capt), Muskan Malik, Sweta Verma, Shipra Giri, Tarannum Pathan, Arti Devi, Radha Yadav, C Prathyusha, Anushka Sharma, Kashvee Gautam, Priyanka Garkhede, R.R. Saha, Dhara Gujjar, Priya Punia and Aishwarya India D: Pooja Vastrakar (capt), Amanjot Kaur, Indrani Roy, K Prathyoosha, S Meghana, Divya G, Ayushi Soni, Kanika Ahuja, Keerthi James, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Sanjula Naik, Monica Patel and Ashwini Kumari