Mumbai: Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Thursday announced the schedule and squads for the upcoming T20I and ODI series between Indian Women and South African women.The All-India Women's Selection Committee met at BCCI HQ to pick the Indian Women's Cricket Team for the upcoming series.
The five T20Is will be played under lights in Surat, while the 50-over format will be day games and will be held in Vadodara, BCCI's official website reported in a statement. The T20I series will begin from September 24 with the final to be played on October 4. The ODI series will begin from October 9 with the final to be played from October 14.
Mithali Raj, who recently announced her retirement from T20Is, will lead the ODI side in the 50-overs format while her deputy Harmanpreet Kaur will lead the team in the T20Is format. Smriti Mandhana will be Harmanpreet's deputy in the T20s.
After Mithali's retirement, selectors gave the opportunity to youngsters for the upcoming series. The 15-year-old rookie Shafali Verma was picked in the Indian women's cricket team for the upcoming home T20 Internationals against South Africa.
Shafali was picked after her good performance in the Women's T20 challenge earlier and at the age-group level this year. She played under Mithali for Team Velocity in the women's T20 challenge which was held during the IPL earlier this year.
indian Women's ODI squad: Mithali Raj (Captain), Jemimah Rodrigues, Harmanpreet Kaur (vice-captain), Punam Raut, Smriti Mandhana, Deepti Sharma, Taniya Bhatia (wicket-keeper), Jhulan Goswami, Shikha Pandey, Mansi Joshi, Ekta Bisht, Poonam Yadav, D Hemalatha, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Priya Punia
Indian Women's squad for first 3 T20Is: Harmanpreet Kaur (Captain), Smriti Mandhana (vice-captain), Jemimah Rodrigues, Deepti Sharma, Taniya Bhatia (wicket-keeper), Poonam Yadav, Shikha Pandey, Arundhati Reddy, Pooja Vastrakar, Radha Yadav, Veda Krishnamurthy, Harleen Deol, Anuja Patil, Shafali Verma, Mansi Joshi(UNI)