Quest for World Cup 2022: Meet India’s squad to be led by Mithali Raj

Two-time finalists India first featured in the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup in 1978. Since then, the team has ended up as runners-up first in 2005 losing to Australia by 98 runs and in 2017 against England where they were defeated in a closely fought contest by 9 runs at Lord’s, London. In 2022, they enter the tournament in the picturesque New Zealand with a few players from the core of the 2017 squad and an addition of some fresh talent and young blood.

Led by Mithali Raj and her deputy Harmanpreet Kaur, the team would also look to bank upon the experience of Jhulan Goswami, Smriti Mandhana and Poonam Yadav. In addition to the experience, there is also the youth of Shafali Verma and Richa Ghosh, while the likes of Deepti Sharma, Sneh Rana, Pooja Vastrakar add some dynamism to the squad that looks to go one step further and bring home their first ever World Cup title.

Here’s a closer look at the Indian squad for the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup

Mithali Raj (Captain)

Style: Right-hand bat

Playing in her sixth ICC World Cup

The India captain made her ODI debut against Ireland at Milton Keynes in 1999. At the age of 19 in 2002, she hit a memorable 214 against England in the second Test at Taunton and has, for nearly two decades, been the mainstay of the Indian batting. She scored 409 runs in the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup in 2017 and became the all-time leading scorer during the tournament in the ODI format. In December 2020 she, was named in the ICC’s Women’s ODI team of the decade. She has led India in 21 matches in the tournament’s history and is three short of owning the all-time record held by Belinda Clark (23). She has also played the most matches in the tournament’s history by an Indian at 31, with only two players overall – NZ’s Debbie Hockley (45) and England’s Jan Brittin (36) – having played more than her as of the start of the 2022 edition.

Taniya Bhatia (Wicket-keeper)

Style: Right-hand bat/wicketkeeper

Playing in her first ICC World Cup

Taniya Bhatia made her ODI debut against Sri Lanka at Galle in 2018. First introduced to the game as a four-year-old, she attended a cricket academy in Chandigarh, where she progressed to the senior team at the age of 16. When she made her T20I debut against South Africa in 2018, she became the first woman cricketer from Chandigarh to represent the national team. She played a major part in the Indian team reaching the final of the ICC WT20 in Australia in 2020, taking six catches and making four stumpings.

Yastika Bhatia

Style: Left-hand bat/part-time wicketkeeper

Playing in her first ICC World Cup

Yastika Bhatia made her ODI debut against Australia at Mackay in 2021. An exciting wicket-keeping batter who rose through the ranks of domestic cricket, she started playing cricket from the age of 11 and made a fifty against U14 boys. In 2019, she struck 145 against Haryana in which Baroda scored 300 plus for the first time in the Under-23 Women’s One-day league. Soon after, she was selected for India A to tour Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, before making her senior international debut two years later.

Rajeshwari Gayakwad

Style: Slow left-arm spinner/right-hand bat

Playing in her second ICC World Cup

Gayakwad made her ODI debut against Sri Lanka at Visakhapatnam in 2014. She started playing professional cricket at the age of 18 when she was picked in the Karnataka squad. She helped India reach the final of the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup in 2017, a tournament which was highlighted by her figures of 5-15 against New Zealand in a must-win match. In the ICC WT20 in 2020, she took seven wickets in six games and conceded less than six runs per over as India reached the final.

Richa Ghosh

Style: Right-hand bat/wicketkeeper

Playing in her first ICC Cricket World Cup

Ghosh made her ODI debut against Australia at Mackay in 2021. Known for her six-hitting abilities, she first played at the age of four after seeing her father Manabendra Ghosh, now a part-time Bengal umpire, play. After a good showing in the Challenger Trophy, she made her international debut at the age of just 16 and played two matches in the ICC WT20 2020. She started 2021 in fine form with 44 not out from 26 balls against South Africa in T20I cricket before hitting 32 not out and 44 in her first two ODIs. She scored impressive half centuries against New Zealand in the build-up to the tournament, including the fastest ever in ODIs by an Indian woman off just 26 balls.

Jhulan Goswami

Style: Right-hand bat/right-arm pace

Playing in her fifth ICC World Cup

Goswami made her ODI debut against England at Chennai in 2002. She took ten wickets in India’s Test victory over England in 2006 and was named ICC Women’s Player of the Year in 2007. She is the leading wicket-taker in ODI history, having surpassed Cathryn Fitzpatrick’s total of 180 wickets which had stood for more than a decade. The leader of India’s pace attack, she boasts more than 300 international wickets to her name.

Harmanpreet Kaur (Vice-captain)

Style: Right-hand bat/off-break bowler

Playing in her fourth ICC World Cup

Kaur he made her ODI debut against Pakistan at Bowral in 2009. In June 2016, she became the first Indian cricketer to be signed by an overseas T20 franchise, when Sydney Thunder signed her for the 2016/17 season of WBBL. She smashed 171 not out off 115 balls in the semi-final of the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup 2017 against Australia which powered India into their first final for the first time since 2005. It remains the highest ever score by an Indian batter in an official knockout match of any World Cup. She became the first Indian woman to play 100 T20Is and is the captain in the shortest format where she led India to the final of the ICC WT20 in 2020. Her first ODI century too came at a World Cup, the one at home in 2013.

Smriti Mandhana

Style: Left-hand opening bat

Playing in her second ICC World Cup

She made her ODI debut against Bangladesh at Ahmedabad in 2013. In October 2013, she became the first Indian woman to achieve a double-hundred in a one-day game when she hit an unbeaten 224 off 150 balls for Maharashtra against Gujarat. She started the ICC World Cup in 2017 with a bang, scoring 90 against England and followed it up an unbeaten 106 against the West Indies. She was also the top scorer in the 2018 Kia Super League in England and was named ICC Women’s Player of the Year later that year. She was once again the recipient of the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy for the ICC Women’s Cricketer of the Year in 2021. Mandhana has had a fabulous 2021 across all formats of the game. She scored, 855 runs in 22 internationals at an average of 38.86 which included one century and five half-centuries

Sneh Rana

Style: Right-hand bat/off-break bowler

Playing in her first ICC World Cup

Rana made her ODI debut against Sri Lanka at Visakhapatnam in 2014. She made an impressive ODI debut, taking 1-7 in her six overs, but inconsistency led to her being out of the ODI team for five years. She enjoyed a productive Inter-state Women’s One Day competition in early 2021 in which she was the leading wicket-taker with 18, as well as scoring 160 runs at an impressive strike rate that saw her make an international comeback. She pressed into middle-order duties in the one-off Test against England at Bristol later that summer where she responded with a match-saving 80 not out in the second innings.

Deepti Sharma

Style: Left-hand bat/off-break bowler

Playing in her second ICC World Cup

She made her ODI debut against South Africa at Bengaluru in 2014. She smashed 188 from just 160 deliveries against Ireland at Potchefstroom in May 2017, then the second-highest ODI score in history by a woman. She shared an opening partnership of 320 runs with Punam Raut, the first triple century partnership in the format. She took five wickets in the ICC WT20 in 2018 and two years later, she scored an unbeaten 49 as India defeated hosts Australia at Sydney.

Meghna Singh

Style: Right-hand bat/right-arm pace

Playing in her first ICC Cricket World Cup

Meghna made her ODI debut against Australia at Mackay in 2021. When she was 14 years old, she would travel 25 kilometres to play and train at Nehru Stadium in Bijnor and she subsequently worked as a clerk for Moradabad Railways. She has featured regularly for Railways and Uttar Pradesh, and she enjoyed a breakthrough season in 2019 when she impressed in domestic cricket and for India A against Sri Lanka. A national call-up came for the all-format tour of Australia, where she made her international debut.

Renuka Singh Thakur

Style: Right-hand bat/right-arm pace

Playing in her first ICC World Cup

Having recently made her ODI debut in New Zealand, she is another newcomer looking to impress in the seam-bowling department. She is a pace bowler from Himachal Pradesh, she came through the HPCA Academy, the same training facility which produced Harleen Deol. She took 21 wickets in the 2018/19 Inter-State Women’s One Day Competition to finish fourth on the wicket-taker list. Moving to represent Railways, she helped her team win the 2021/22 tournament, taking 4-14 in the final against Karnataka.

Pooja Vastrakar

Style: Right-hand-bat/right-arm ace

Playing in her first ICC Women’s World Cup

Vastrakar made her ODI debut against South Africa at Potchefstroom in 2018. She started her career at Madhya Pradesh as a batter but switched to seam bowling after impressing her coach. She earned a place in her country’s side for the ICC WT20 in 2018, but suffered a knee injury in a warm-up match that ruled her out of the tournament before it even began. Recovering from the injury, she played a vital part in the 2018 Women’s Asia Cup and was named in the squad for the ICC T20WC 2020, but failed to make it into the playing XI. She has had an impressive domestic season in the lead-up to the World Cup and has shown power-hitting qualities lower down the order.

Shafali Verma

Style: : Right-hand opening bat

Playing in her first ICC World Cup

Shafali made her ODI debut against England at Bristol in 2021. She first came to prominence in the Women’s T20 Challenge in 2019 and soon after which she was drafted into India’s T20I squad. She was the heartbeat of the Indian team that reached the finals of the ICC WT20 in 2020, scoring 163 runs at a strike-rate of 158.25. In March 2021, she became the number 1 ranked T20I batter following her innings of 47 off just 31 deliveries against South Africa at Lucknow.

Poonam Yadav

Style: Right-hand bat/leg-break bowler

Playing in her second ICC World Cup

She made her ODI debut against Bangladesh at Ahmedabad in 2013. She was included in the India squad for the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup in 2017, where she took 2-36 in her ten overs in the final against England at Lord’s. The joint leading wicket-taker in the ICC WT20 in 2018, she took eight wickets in five games and became India’s leading wicket-taker in the format. She kept up that form two years later when she took 4-19 as India defeated Australia in the first round at Sydney. Since then she has been in and out of the first XI, but remains an important cog of the Indian bowling unit.

Travelling reserves

Ekta Bisht

Style: Left-hand bat/slow left-arm spinner

Bisht has played in the two previous editions of the ICC World Cup. She made her ODI debut against Australia at Chesterfield in 2011 and became the first woman from Uttarakhand to represent the India. She took a hat-trick in T20I cricket against Sri Lanka in 2012. Five years later, she took 5-18 against Pakistan at Derby in the ICC World Cup 2017 to help lead her team to a comfortable victory and help earn a selection in the ICC Women’s ODI Team of the Year. She was called up for the tour of England in 2021, where her experience rubbed off on some of the younger players.

Simran Dil Bahadur

Style: Left-hand-bat/right-arm pacer

Yet to play in an ICC World Cup

Simran made her ODI debut against New Zealand at Queenstown in 2022. Having first joined Punjabi Bagh Cricket Academy in Delhi at the age of 16, she was playing for the State Under-19 within a year, followed by Under-23 and senior teams. In 2019, she represented the India team who emerged victorious in the Emerging Asia Cup tournament in Bangladesh. She too has made the squad based on impressive recent domestic circuit performances.

Sabhineni Meghana

Style: Right-hand opening bat

Yet to play in an ICC World Cup

Meghana made her ODI debut against New Zealand at Queenstown in 2022 but she had first played for India a while back. She started playing cricket at the age of 11 and used to board a bus at 4.30 am to travel to cricket practice. She broke into the State Under-19 team the following year. She led all run-scorers for two successive years at Under-23 level and earned a debut in T20I cricket against the West Indies in 2016. She fell out of favour soon afterwards, but after having topped the run charts in the 2021/22 Inter-state One Day Competition, she was recalled to the national team. She was one of the brightest sparks for India in New Zealand in the recent ODI series, impressing in the absence of Smriti Mandhana in the initial stages with her aggressive batting style.

With inputs from ICC official tournament media guide