India announce squads for Women’s series against South Africa, 15-year-old Shafali Verma included in T20I squad

The All-India Women’s Selection Committee met on Thursday at BCCI headquarters to pick the Indian Women’s Cricket Team for the upcoming series.

The BCCI on Thursday announced the scheduled and squads for the upcoming T20I and ODI series between India Women and South Africa women. The All-India Women’s Selection Committee met on Thursday at BCCI headquarters to pick the Indian Women’s Cricket Team for the upcoming series. According to a press release, 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.

India announce squads for series against South Africa. (BCCI Women/Twitter)

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.

Here is the schedule for the series:

South Africa Women’s Tour of India, 2019 Schedule. (BCCI)

Mithali Raj, who recently announced her retirement from T20Is, will lead the side in the 50-overs format, despite not being a part of the T20Is squad. Her deputy Harmanpreet Kaur will lead the team in the T20Is format with Smriti Mandhana as the vice-captain.

Veteran Mithali retirement from the T20 format on Thursday paved the way for the induction of youngsters such as 15-year-old rookie Shafali Verma in the Indian women’s cricket team for the upcoming home T20 Internationals against South Africa. Shafali was picked following her good performance in the Women’s T20 challenge earlier and at the age-group level this year. The diminutive Haryana-girl 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

(With agency inputs)