India's Women's team squad was announced for the upcoming Cricket World Cup and we saw some big names being left out. It was also announced that the same squad will feature in the ODI series against New Zealand.
Squad
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.
Here is India Women’s 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.
The pacer Shikha Pandey and top-order batsman Jemimah Rodrigues were the renowned names to be dropped from the World Cup squad.
India will be playing their first World Cup match against Pakistan but before that, they got in a 5-match series against the Kiwis. Do you think that Jemimah's exclusion from the squad was deserved?
Well, let's analyze. Since Cricket resumed after the pandemic, Jemimah featured in five ODIs but failed to hit double-digit in any one of them.
She scored 1,9,0,8 and 4 in the ODIs against South Africa at home and a couple in England. Jemimah was picked for the series in Australia but didn't actively participate as she was benched.
Another reason why she saw herself on the bench was some brilliant knocks by Shefali Verma and Yastika Bhatia, scoring 64 off 69 in India's only win against Australia on the tour.
The tournament history
The Women's Cricket World Cup is one of the oldest sports tournaments and 2022 will witness the 12th edition of the competition being played. In the past 11 competitions, Australia has won the competition six times, failing to reach the final only thrice.
England have won it four times, winning the first-ever World Cup, and are also the defending champions. New Zealand has also won it once in 2000 and they did it when it was held in their backyard. This year in 2022, New Zealand are hosting the competition again and it will be interesting to see how things pan out.
India have made it to the finals only twice and unfortunately lost in both of them (2005 and 2017). Can they get the trophy home this season?
If yes then who will be the key players to contribute? We all that cricket is a team game but some senior players like the skipper Mithali Raj would feel that it's their responsibility to ensure that they do well and the team does well.
Not just Mithali but experienced players like Jhulan Goswami, Smriti Mandhana, Harmanpreet Kaur, Deepti Sharma, and Poonam Yadav will have to produce their A-game and keep the squad motivated.
What do you think? How far will India reach in this year's World Cup? What are their chances? And if not India then who is the ideal contender to win the trophy? Let us know!
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