Commonwealth Games, Women's T20 event: Harmanpreet Kaur to lead India
India Women have announced a solid-looking 15-member squad for the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham. It would be the first edition of the T20 tournament at the multi-sport event. Harmanpreet Kaur will captain the Women in Blue with Smriti Mandhana as her deputy. The eight-team tournament will commence on July 29, with India playing the opening match against Australia. Here are further details.
CWG: India drawn with Australia, Barbados, and Pakistan
India Women, who are seated in Group A, will lock horns with Australia, Barbados, and Pakistan in the league stage. England, NZ, SA, and Sri Lanka constitute Group B. The top two teams of each group will advance to the semi-finals. Winners of the semi-finals will compete for gold, while the losing sides will compete for a bronze-medal finish.
India Women beat Sri Lanka 2-1
India thumped Sri Lanka 2-1 in the three-match T20Is held last month. Harmanpreet was adjudged as the Player of the Series. She amassed 92 runs at 92.00 and also managed a wicket. Jemimah Rodrigues (72) and Mandhana (62) were the second and third-most run-getters for the visitors. Spinner Radha Yadav was class apart, pocketing four scalps at 19.50.
Deol returns to the T20I set-up
India have opted for nearly the same squad from the Lankan tour. The only addition is middle-order batter Harleen Deol, who featured in three-match ODIs that followed the T20Is. She scored a crunch 34 off 40 deliveries in the first ODI. Interestingly, Deol last played a T20I against Australia in October 2021. Overall, the right-hander has 135 runs in 13 outings (HS: 52).
India Women squad for Commonwealth Games
India Women squad: Harmanpreet Kaur (C), Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Verma, S. Meghana, Taniya Sapna Bhatia, Yastika Bhatia, Deepti Sharma, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Pooja Vastrakar, Meghna Singh, Renuka Thakur, Jemimah Rodrigues, Radha Yadav, Harleen Deol, Sneh Rana. Standby: Simran Dil Bahadur, Richa Ghosh, Poonam Yadav.
Women's cricket will make its debut at Commonwealth Games
Women's cricket will feature at the Commonwealth Games for the first time. Edgbaston in Birmingham will host the entire tournament. Notably, the sport was last played in a multi-sporting tournament in 1998. A 'List A' men's tournament was held at the 1998 Commonwealth Games in Malaysia. Last year, the ICC confirmed that the "campaign to get cricket back into the Olympic Games is on".
