India Women’s squad announced for Commonwealth Games 2022

The Board of Control for Cricket in India has released the final squad of the Indian Women’s Cricket Team for the Commonwealth Games 2022 to be held in Birmingham starting Monday. Harmanpreet Kaur was named the skipper of the 15-member strong squad and will have explosive opener Smriti Mandhana as her deputy. 

The team has been selected keeping in mind the T20 format of the tournament, seeing the likes of Poonam Yadav miss out on the squad. However, she along with Richa Ghosh and Simran Dil Bahadur have been named as stand-by players should any of the players need to be replaced.

Sneh Rana has made a comeback to the team after injury kept her out of the recent series against Sri Lanka. Yastika Bhatia will likely play the role of the team’s primary wicketkeeper, while Taniya Bhatiya will be expected to keep the stumps in her absence. Batswoman Harleen Deol is another player to have returned to the squad, making the team for her attacking instincts at the top of the order.

The full squad is as follows: Harmanpreet Kaur (C), Smriti Mandhana (VC), Shafali Verma, Sabbhineni Meghana, Taniya Bhatia (WK), Yastika Bhatia (WK), Deepti Sharma, Rajeshari Gayakwad, Pooja Vastrakar, Meghna Singh, Renuka Thakur, Jemimah Rodrigues, Radha Yadav, Harleen Deol, Sneh Rana.

India will begin their campaign against Australia on the 29th of July followed by clashes against Pakistan and Barbados. All fixtures will be held at the Edgbaston Cricket Ground, with only two of the four aforementioned teams set to progress from the semi-finals from Pool A.