Harmanpreet Kaur and Ruturaj Gaikwad have been named as captains of the women’s and men’s Indian cricket teams, respectively, that will compete at the Asian Games in Hangzhou in September and October.
In an announcement late night on Friday, the Board of Control for Cricket in India – the governing body for the sport in the country – announced the teams keeping in mind a clash in schedules between the men’s event in Hangzhou, and the ICC men’s ODI World Cup which India will host.
“BCCI will send both men’s and women’s teams to the Asian Games scheduled to be held in September 2023 at Hangzhou, China,” read a statement issued by the body on July 8, following its Apex Council meeting.
“However, considering the overlap of schedule of the Asian Games with ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023, BCCI will select from the players not participating in the World Cup to play in the Asian Games.”
In other words, the players competing at the Asian Games – which will be organised in the T20 format – will not get to play in the 50-over World Cup.
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While the men’s team will be led by Gaikwad, and will include several players who have made their mark in the Indian Premier League – such as, but not limited to, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Tilak Varma and Rinku Singh – the BCCI has named a strong women’s team.
With Kaur as captain, Smriti Mandhana will serve as vice-captain of a team that includes Shafali Verma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Deepti Sharma, Richa Ghosh and others. The two big omissions from the team are pacers Renuka Singh Thakur and Shikha Pandey. Off-spinner Shreyanka Patil, who had a good Women’s Premier League outing, was a star player at the ACC Women’s Emerging Teams Asia Cup in Hong Kong, and is set to become the first Indian to compete in the Caribbean Premier League, has also been left out of the squad.
The women’s cricket event at the Asian Games will take place from September 19 to 28, followed by the men’s event from September 28 to October 8. The World Cup meanwhile starts on October 5 and will go on till the final on November 19.
Women’s team
Harmanpreet Kaur (C), Smriti Mandhana (VC), Shafali Verma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Deepti Sharma, Richa Ghosh (wk), Amanjot Kaur, Devika Vaidya, Anjali Sarvani, Titas Sadhu, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Minnu Mani, Kanika Ahuja, Uma Chetry (wk), Anusha Bareddy
Standby list of players: Harleen Deol, Kashvee Gautam, Sneh Rana, Saika Ishaque, Pooja Vastrakar
Men’s team
Ruturaj Gaikwad (Captain), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rahul Tripathi, Tilak Varma, Rinku Singh, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Washington Sundar, Shahbaz Ahmed, Ravi Bishnoi, Avesh Khan, Arshdeep Singh, Mukesh Kumar, Shivam Mavi, Shivam Dube, Prabhsimran Singh (wk)
Standby list of players: Yash Thakur, Sai Kishore, Venkatesh Iyer, Deepak Hooda, Sai Sudarsan.
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