In a huge surprise for the selection of the India Women’s side for the upcoming three-match ODIs and as many T20Is against West Indies at home, the committee has dropped their fast bowler Arundhati Reddy, who picked up four wickets in her previous fixture against Australia Women at the WACA in Perth.
The hosts have handed over the maiden call-ups to Nandini Kashyap and Raghvi Bist for the shortest format, while Pratika Rawal and Tanuja Kanwar have been called up for the 50-over format. Bist has been in perfect touch with three back-to-back half-centuries against Australia A at Mackay.
The aggressive opening batter of India women, Shafali Verma, continues to be away from both squads after being dropped for the ODIs against Australia recently. The 20-year-old has already smashed over 2000 runs in the 20-over format at a strike rate of around 129, but her recent performance for the national side hasn’t been decent.
India women keep on ignoring Shefali Verma for both ODI and T20Is
D Hemalatha goes out of the T20I squad that played the 20-over World Cup in October, while Radha Yadhav, the highest wicket-taker in the 50-over format against New Zealand at home in the last series with seven scalps, has been ignored for the ODIs.
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Yastika Bhatia, Shreyanka Patil, and Priya Punia remain unavailable for selection of the India Women’s side due to their respective injuries. Priya Mishra, Uma Chetry, Saima Thakor, Minnu Mani, and Titas Sadhu have been added to both the white-ball squads.
It was a bit stunning show to see Arundhati Reddy out of the squad despite finishing as the joint-highest wicket-taker in the T20 World Cup for India Women, with seven wickets in four innings at an average of below 13 and a strike rate of 12.85 and an economy of six. Having played the dead rubber in the recent ODI series, he finished with 4/26 to run through the top order of Australia.
The reports have claimed that the bowler has been asked to go back to Hyderabad and play the ongoing domestic Senior Women’s One-day Trophy. The wicket-keeper batter, Kashyap, was the leading run-getter for Uttarakhand and the third leading over in the senior Women’s T20 Trophy this year, where he punched 247 runs in seven innings with a best score of unbeaten 117 runs against Pondicherry.
Her domestic teammate Bist made an impression during the A-series against Australia. Before the India women’s selection, she was picked in Team E for the Senior Women’s T20 Challenger Trophy, where she nailed a 71-run knock in just 51 deliveries against Team A to help her side get to the title in November this year.
The first spotlight for Rawal was caught in 2021 while hitting an undefeated 155-ball 161-run knock to carry Delhi to the knockouts to the domestic one-day competition. She was also part of Delhi’s run to the semifinal of the Under-23 One-day Trophy earlier this year, finishing as the second-highest run-getter with 411 runs in seven innings.
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All eyes will also be on the veteran players, including captain of India women Harmanpreet Kaur, who has struggled in recent times with the bat and even in the captaincy. The T20I series will begin from December 15 in Navi Mumbai, while the ODIs will start from December 22 in Vadodara.
India Women’s Squad vs West Indies
ODI Squad
Harmanpreet Kaur (captain), Smriti Mandhana, Nandini Kashyap, Jemimah Rodrigues, Richa Ghosh (wk), Uma Chetry (wk), Deepti Sharma, Sajeevan Sajana, Raghvi Bist, Renuka Thakur, Priya Mishra, Titas Sadhu, Saima Thakor, Minnu Mani, Radha Yadav.
T20I Squad
Harmanpreet Kaur (captain), Smriti Mandhana, Pratika Rawal, Jemimah Rodrigues, Harleen Deol, Richa Ghosh (wk), Uma Chetry (wk), Tejal Hasabnis, Deepti Sharma, Minnu Mani, Priya Mishra, Tanuja Kanwar, Titas Sadhu, Saima Thakor, Renuka Thakur