Smriti Mandhana has been ruled out of the upcoming ICC Women’s World Cup Qualifiers due to an injury she sustained while playing in the Big Bash League.

Playing for Brisbane Heat, she had hurt her knee during a match against Melbourne Renegades on January 15. She has been replaced by Vidarbha skipper Mona Meshram. The 25-year old was the only player from the 15-member squad that took on West Indies in November to miss out on a place in the squad for the qualifiers. Meshram, who made her debut in 2012, has still not proved her credentials at the highest stage. In the eight ODIs that he has played so far, she has managed only 47 runs and a solitary wicket. But she has been in good form in the domestic T20 circuit where she has scored 265 runs this season.

India are scheduled to play a practice game against South Africa on February 5 before starting their campaign against hosts Sri Lanka on February 7. Ireland, Zimbabwe and Thailand are the other teams in India’s group. The tournament also includes Pakistan, Bangladesh, Scotland and Papua New Guinea. The top four teams from the qualifying event will head to the ICC Women’s Championship which will be held from 26 June to 23 July in England.

India Women squad for Qualifier:

Mithali Raj (Captain), Harmanpreet Kaur (Vice-captain), Veda Krishnamurthy, MD Thirushkamini, Devika Vaidya, Sushma Verma (Wicketkeeper), Jhulan Goswami, Deepti Sharma, Shikha Pandey, Sukanya Parida, Poonam Yadav, Ekta Bisht, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Mona Meshram.