World Cup: India name squad led by Mithali Raj; Jemimah Rodrigues, Shikha Pandey among absentees

Jemimah Rodrigues, Punam Raut and Shikha Pandey were among those out of India’s One Day International squad for the upcoming ICC Women’s World Cup 2022 as well as the preceding series against hosts New Zealand.

The All-India Women’s Selection Committee on Wednesday picked a 15-member squad and named three standby players for the marquee event in New Zealand.

The trio were part of the bigger squad that toured Australia last year and Rodrigues also stayed back for the Women’s Big Bash League where she had a good run of scores for Melbourne Renegades, carrying on her good form from The Hundred. But playing time for the international side has been hard to come by for her. Senior pacer Pandey too had to bide her time on the sidelines against Australia, before eventually getting a game.

Recent debutants Yastika Bhatia (batter), Meghna Singh (pacer) keep their places after good recent performances in the domestic circuit too. Seamer Renuka Singh Thakur was part of the T20I squad for the Australia tour and made her debut in the format too Down Under and she finds a place in the ODI squad now for the upcoming matches.

In Richa Ghosh and Taniya Bhatia, India have named two wicket-keepers in the squad, while Sabbhineni Meghana, Ekta Bisht and Simran Dil Bahadur have been named as three stand-by players.

India play their first World Cup fixture against Pakistan on March 6, 2022, at the Bay Oval, Tauranga.

The squad will also feature in the five-match ODI series against New Zealand starting from 11th February, 2022.

Squad ODIs against NZ & ICC Women’s World Cup 2022: Mithali Raj (Captain), Harmanpreet Kaur (vice-captain), Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Verma, Yastika Bhatia, Deepti Sharma, Richa Ghosh (wicket-keeper), Sneh Rana, Jhulan Goswami, Pooja Vastrakar, Meghna Singh, Renuka Singh Thakur, Taniya Bhatia (wicket-keeper), Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Poonam Yadav.

Standby Players: Sabbhineni Meghana, Ekta Bisht, Simran Dil Bahadur.

In the last edition of the tournament in 2017, India narrowly missed out on creating history as they lost by nine runs to hosts England in the title clash. Since then, they have also reached the final of the T20 World Cup final in Australia.

The All-India Women’s Selection Committee also picked the squad for the one-off T20I against New Zealand scheduled to be played on 9th February, 2022, essentially comprising players from the ODI squad, minus the retired Mithali Raj and Jhulan Goswami.

Squad for one-off T20I:

Harmanpreet Kaur (Captain), Smriti Mandhana (vice-captain), Shafali Verma, Yastika Bhatia, Deepti Sharma, Richa Ghosh (wicket-keeper), Sneh Rana, Pooja Vastrakar, Meghna Singh, Renuka Singh Thakur, Taniya Bhatia (wicket-keeper), Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Poonam Yadav, Ekta Bisht, S. Meghna, Simran Dil Bahadur.