BCCI announces squads for senior women’s T20 Challenger Trophy; Mandhana, Harmanpreet and Veda named captains

The 2019-20 senior women’s T20 Challenger Trophy will be played from 4th – 11th of January, 2020 in Cuttack. The All-India Women’s Selection Committee recently announced the squads of the three participating teams. The three participating teams are India A, India B, and India C, as per the BCCI press release.

The T20 version of the tournament was introduced in 2018-19 season and is being played with an eye on preparation for the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup to be played in Australia in 2020. The trophy will see the three teams playing in a double round-robin format and the top two teams in the points table will play the final.

This time around two big names of Mithali Raj and Jhulan Goswami will be missing given that both have called time on their careers in the 20-over format, but each of the 14-member squads features some youngsters to go with experienced players, showcasing the amazing bench strength the Indian women’s cricket possesses.

Harmanpreet, Mandhana, and Veda named captains of the three teams

Harmanpreet Kaur will lead India A, Smriti Mandhana will captain India B and Veda Krishnamurthy will skipper India C. Australia will hold the T20 World Cup next year alongside the men’s tourney and this is ideal preparation for the same. The squads feature some good young stars in the making. Taniya Bhatia was named keeper for the India A side, Nuzhat Parveen will keep wickets for India C and Sushma Verma will helm the keeping gloves for India B.

The squads are as follows:

India A: Harmanpreet Kaur (C), Taniya Bhatia (WK), Shivali Shinde (WK), Jasia Akhtar, Priya Puniya, Deepti Sharma, Devika Vaidya, Sneh Rana, Mansi Joshi, Meghna Singh, Komal Jhanjhad, Meenu Mani, Radha Yadav, Bharati Fulmali

India B: Smriti Mandhana (C), Sushma Verma (WK), R Kalpana (WK), Vanitha V.R, Jemimah Rodrigues, Anuja Patil, Poonam Yadav, Pooja Vastrakar, Shikha Pandey, Renuka Singh, Anjali Sarvani, Sushri Dibyadarshini, T.P. Kanwar, Richa Ghosh

India C: Veda Krishnamurthy (C), Nuzhat Parween (WK), Shafali Verma (WK), Yastika Bhatiya, D. Hemlatha, Harleen Deol, Manali Dakshini, Jincy George, Arundhati Reddy, Monica Patel, Vrushali Bhagat, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Tanushree Sarkar, Madhuri Mehta