 "Team India will hope to bury the disappointment of finishing runners-up in the Asia Cup by winning their maiden world title in the UAE in October. Image: X / @JayShah")
India unveiled their squad for the ninth edition of the Women’s T20 World Cup on Tuesday, a little over a month before the tournament gets underway in the United Arab Emirates.
The Women in Blue will be desperate to end their long wait for a global title, all the more so after suffering a shock defeat at the hands of Chamari Athapaththu’s Sri Lanka in the final of the Asia Cup last month.
Skipper Harmanpreet Kaur and head coach Amol Muzumdar will be hoping the eight-wicket loss at the hands of the spirited Lankan side in the final in Dambulla will be something of a wake-up call, and that Team India will come out a lot stronger in the T20 World Cup.
India had made rapid strides during Anjum Chopra and Mithali Raj’s reigns as captains, finishing runners-up twice in the ODI World Cup, and have been just as competitive under Harmanpreet’s leadership, finishing runners-up in the 2020 T20 World Cup and reaching the semi-finals of the 2023 edition.
This year’s T20 World Cup was originally supposed to take place in Bangladesh, but was shifted to the UAE by the ICC due to ongoing tension in the south Asian nation due to the students’ protest that eventually led to the ouster of the Sheikh Hasina-led Awami League government.
Before the tournament gets underway, we take a look at some of the key takeaways from India’s squad:
India retain a large chunk of Asia Cup squad
Impact Shorts
More ShortsThe biggest takeaway from the squad announcement for the T20 World Cup was the fact that the BCCI decided to retain a large chunk of the players who had travelled to Sri Lanka for the Asia Cup. That’s 14 from the 15-player squad set to board the flight to UAE, to be more specific.
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As prestigious as the Asia Cup is for India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, it has also served as a pre-cursor to global tournaments in recent years. India and the other teams not only fight for continental supremacy, they take note of the performances keeping the ODI or T20 World Cup in mind.
The Indians had a fine run in the Asia Cup, where Shafali Verma and vice-captain finished second and third on the run-scorers’ list while three Indians had finished among the top five in the bowling chart, including spin-bowling all-rounder Deepti Sharma at the top.
The selection committee thus had enough reason to not make any sweeping changes to the side, giving the team a sense of continuity after the continental event.
Bhatia returns as a reserve keeper-batter
Wicketkeeper-batter Uma Chetry, meanwhile, is the only player from the Asia Cup squad who did not make the cut for the T20 World Cup.
Chhetry had featured in the semi-final and final against Bangladesh and Sri Lanka respectively, scoring 9 in the latter, and has been included as a travelling reserve along with Tanuja Kanwar and Saima Thakor, subject to fitness.
Bhatia, who had last featured in the T20I series in the tour of Bangladesh, has been recuperating from a knee injury at the National Cricket Academy. Her return boosts the Indian top-order given she’s a back-up opener, and also gives the Women in Blue an able back-up to first-choice keeper Richa Ghosh.
Bhatia had a good run with the bat in the Women’s Premier League earlier this year, where the 23-year-old finished Mumbai Indians’ third-highest run-scorer with 204 runs in eight outings.
Though she usually plays as an opener, Bhatia could be just as useful at the No 3 slot with Verma and Mandhana opening and skipper Harmanpreet coming in at No 4.
Patil back in the spin department
Also returning from injury is off-spinner Shreyanka Patil, though unlike Bhatia she had actually been picked in the Asia Cup squad initially.
Patil had suffered a finger injury on her left hand during India’s tournament opener against arch-rivals Pakistan, though she still managed to sign off with superb figures of 2/14 in just under four overs, and was replaced by Tanuja Kanwar for the remainder of the tournament.
Left-arm spinner Kanwar, though, hasn’t been ignored entirely and like Chetry, has been retained among the travelling reserves.
India A’s multi-format tour of Australia doesn’t go unnoticed
Looking at India’s extended squad for the Women’s T20 World Cup tells us that the selectors have been keeping an eye on India A’s multi-format tour of Australia, in which the visitors played three T20Is and as many ODIs followed by a one-off unofficial Test.
Both Chhetry and Kanwar had featured in that tour across formats, the former scoring 47 in the red-ball fixture in Gold Coast that took India close to the 289-run target set by the home team.
The selectors have also decided to pick Raghvi Bisht and Priya Mishra as travelling reserves. While Bisht had scored a half-century in each of the three one-dayers, Mishra starred in India’s 171-run win in the third one-dayer, their only win of the tour, with a haul of 5/14. That was followed by a four-fer in the unofficial Test.