India will be bidding to win its first-ever ICC Women's World Cup. The Indian squad was announced on Thursday. Jemimah Rodrigues and Shikha Pandey have been left out.
The 2022 ICC Women's World Cup will be played in New Zealand from March 4. Ahead of the same, the Board of Cricket for Cricket in India (BCCI) and the national selectors announced the 15-woman squad. While Renuka Singh, Meghna Singh and Yastika Bhatia have broken into the squad, Jemimah Rodrigues and Shikha Pandey are the notable omissions.
The squad happens to be the same that will feature in a five-match One-Day International (ODI) series in New Zealand. Although Shikha recently toured Australia, the breakout of Meghna and Renuka has pushed some of the senior players out of contention. Also, Yastika was more impressive with the bat than Jemimah.
Renuka's inclusion in the squad is a surprise, having not played an ODI to date. However, she was acclaimed for her bowling effectiveness, along with Jhulan Goswami, Meghna and Pooja Vastrakar, during the Twenty20 Internationals (T20Is) in Australia. "It was amazing to watch our bowlers dominate the Australian batters, so for me, that was the biggest positive," skipper Smriti Mandhana had said back then.
On the other hand, Meghna was also effective with Jhulan, as she opened the bowling in Australia. While she claimed a couple for 56 during India's only Test against Australia, all lauded her ability to move the ball away from the right-handers. Yastika's batting also grabbed eyeballs, scoring a half-century during her third ODI game, while her gameplay and stroke playing abilities against some of the best Aussie bowlers were admirable.
INDW squad for NZ ODIS and & WCWC: Mithali Raj (c), Harmanpreet Kaur (vc), Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Verma, Yastika Bhatia, Deepti Sharma, Richa Ghosh (wk), Sneh Rana, Jhulan Goswami, Pooja Vastrakar, Meghna Singh, Renuka Singh Thakur, Taniya Bhatia (wk), Rajeshwari Gayakwad and Poonam Yadav.
Reserves: Sabbhineni Meghana, Ekta Bisht, Simran Dil Bahadur.