Women's T20 Challenge 2020: BCCI announces 15-member squad for 3 teams

This would be the third season of the Women's T20 Challenge, with the first edition being held in 2018. It would be played along the lines of Indian Premier League 2020 playoffs in the United Arab Emirates. The Supernovas are the two-time defending champions of the tournament.

As the Indian Premier League (IPL) continues to excel with its fine matches in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), some good news has come for women's cricket as well. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has announced the squads for the three teams to participate in the upcoming Women's T20 Challenge.

After months of uncertainty, the BCCI had announced last week that the third edition of the Women's T20 Challenge would be held from November 4-9 in the UAE. Conspicuously, the tournament would also clash with the Women's Big Bash League (WBBL), in Australia, starting October 25.

Meanwhile, the Women's T20 Challenge is all set to include three teams for the second time, unlike a two-team affair in 2018. Defending champions Supernovas would play alongside Trailblazer and Velocity.

Supernovas, who are the two-time defending champions, would be led by Harmanpreet Kaur, while Trailblazers would have Smriti Mandhana as their skipper. As for Velocity, they would be under the leadership of veteran Mithali Raj. Below is the complete list of the 15-member squad of all the three sides.

Supernovas: Harmanpreet Kaur (capt), Jemimah Rodrigues (vice-captain), Chamari Atapattu, Priya Punia, Anuja Patil, Radha Yadav, Taniya Bhatia (wk), Shashikala Siriwardene, Poonam Yadav, Shakera Selman, Arundhati Reddy, Pooja Vastrakar, Ayushi Soni, Ayabonga Khaka, Muskan Malik.

Trailblazers: Smriti Mandhana (capt), Deepti Sharma (vice-captain), Punam Raut, Richa Ghosh, D. Hemalatha, Nuzhat Parween (wk), Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Harleen Deol, Jhulan Goswami, Simaran Dil Bahadur, Salma Khatun, Sophie Ecclestone, Natthakan Chantham, Deandra Dottin, Kashvee Gautam.

Velocity: Mithali Raj (capt), Veda Krishnamurthy (vc), Shafali Verma, Sushma Verma (wk), Ekta Bisht, Mansi Joshi, Shikha Pandey, Devika Vaidya, Sushree Dibyadarshini, Manali Dakshini, Leigh Kasperek, Danielle Wyatt, Sune Luus, Jahanara Alam, M. Anagha.

The 2020 Women's T20 Challenge would be a round-robin format, where the three teams would play against each other once. A total of four matches are to be played, including the final, while all the games would be taking place in Sharjah.