Mithali Raj will lead the Indian women brigade in the World Cup qualifiers to be played in Sri Lanka from February 7 to 21. Mona Meshram has been dropped from the squad. She was part of the team against the ODIs series against West Indies paid in the month of November last year.

Indian team missed out on a direct spot in the World Cup as BCCI forfeited the bilateral series against Pakistan, which resulted in Indian team missing out on crucial points and Pakistan going away with six crucial points. Indian team thus missed an automatic qualification the World Cup and have been forced to participate in the qualifiers.

Indian team is placed in Group A along with the hosts Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe, Ireland and Thailand. Indian chances of qualifying for the Championship cup looks quite bright. The Indian team will play a practice game against South Africa on February 5 before going in the main round.

Women’s World Cup starts on June 26 and the final of the tournament will be played at Lord’s on July 23. A total of 31 matches will be played in a month-long tournament.

Indian Women Squad: Mithali Raj (Captain), Hamrnapreet kaur (Vice-captain), Smriti Mandhana, Veda Krishnamurthy, MD Thirushkamini, Devika Vaidya, Sushma Verma (Wicketkeeper), Jhulan Goswami, Deepti Sharma, Shikha PAndey, Sukanya Parida, Poonam Yadav, Ekta Bisht, Rajeshwari Gayakwad.