CHENNAI: Shafali Verma received a maiden call-up to the one-day squad as the senior national women's selection committee picked a full-strength squad for the upcoming tour of England in June. Mithali Raj, who accused Ramesh Powar of being “unfair and discriminatory” towards her in his previous stint as coach, will work with him closely after being named captain of the one-day side and for the one-off Test in Bristol. Harmanpreet Kaur will take charge of the T20Is that follow.
India women's team are scheduled to embark on a full-fledged tour to the United Kingdom in June-July. The selection meeting was a significant one as it came fresh on the heels of the Cricket Advisory Committee removing WV Raman as head coach and appointing Powar for the second term. The decision was made after the selectors, made some dubious selection calls for the home series against South Africa last March, which happened to be the last of Raman. The selectors, led by Neetu David, had asked Raman to be replaced in the wake of the series defeat.
The selectors had then disagreed with Raman over their decision to not include Shafali, Shikha Pandey and Taniya Bhatia. At the same time, there was no place for Monica Patel and C Prathyusha, whose inclusion raised eyebrows last time. With the previous selection meeting coming under scrutiny, it is understood that the BCCI had a close watch on this.
Meanwhile, courtesy of their good performance in the domestic circuit Sneh Rana and Jharkhand's wicketkeeper Indrani Roy received maiden call-ups.
Unlike last time, where the one-day seemed so out of place, this time the selectors have gone with a squad keeping in mind the 50-over World Cup. Beginning with the one-off Test in Bristol, the team will play three ODIs and as many T20s.
Squad: (Test & ODI): Mithali Raj (Captain), Smriti Mandhana, Harmanpreet Kaur (vice-captain), Punam Raut, Priya Punia, Deepti Sharma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Shafali Verma, Sneh Rana, Taniya Bhatia (wicket-keeper), Indrani Roy (wicket-keeper), Jhulan Goswami, Shikha Pandey, Pooja Vastrakar, Arundhati Reddy, Poonam Yadav, Ekta Bisht, Radha Yadav.
T20I: Harmanpreet Kaur (Captain) Smriti Mandhana (vice-captain), Deepti Sharma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Shafali Verma, Richa Ghosh, Harleen Deol, Sneh Rana, Taniya Bhatia (wicket-keeper), Indrani Roy (wicket-keeper), Shikha Pandey, Pooja Vastrakar, Arundhati Reddy, Poonam Yadav, Ekta Bisht, Radha Yadav, Simaran Dil Bahadur.