MORE than a year after her last international appearance, pacer Shikha Pandey has been recalled to the Harmanpreet Kaur-led Indian team for the upcoming T20 World Cup in South Africa early next year.
Shikha, who last played for India during the T20I series against Australia in October 2021, was not picked for the ODI World Cup earlier this year to the surprise of many. She was subsequently not selected for the rest of the assignments through 2022, including the Women's T20 Challenge, Commonwealth Games and the Asia Cup.
During the 2022-23 domestic season, she came back strongly, picking up 20 wickets in 16 T20s at an average of 13.45 at an economy of 4.63. However, she did not make the team for the Australia series despite Pooja Vastrakar missing due to injury. The Indian bowling attack, featuring just two seamers for most of the series, struggled to contain the Australian side in the recently concluded high-scoring T20I series, which the hosts lost 1-4.
Now, after 14 months, the All-India Women’s Selection Committee has brought back Shikha for the tri-series in South Africa and the T20 World Cup.
Vastrakar is named in both the squads but her final inclusion will be subject to fitness. Leg-spinning all-rounder Devika Vaidya, who had a good comeback series against Australia, retains her place while Amanjot Kaur and Shushma Verma are included only for the tri-series in which Shafali Verma and Richa Ghosh will not be taking part due to the U-19 T20 World Cup duties.
Pacer Meghna Singh, whose poor run continued in the T20Is in Mumbai, makes the tri-series with Sneh Rana and Sabbineni Meghana but the trio are in the reserves for the global event. Having impressed everyone with her performance in the debut series, left-arm pacer Anjali Sarvani will have a key role to play for India in both the tri-series as well as the World Cup.
The Harmanpreet-led side will play Pakistan in their first game of the World Cup on February 12 in Cape Town. At the moment, they do not have a head coach or a bowling coach with the newly-appointed batting coach Hrishikesh Kanitkar running the show. Whether a bowling coach will be appointed before the World Cup is yet to be seen. “Definitely, it will be helpful (to have a bowling coach) and the BCCI is looking into it. I think we’ll have somebody good coming in hopefully, very soon," Kanitkar had said after the T20I series against Australia.
Having reached the final of the last two big-ticket T20 events — 2020 T20 World Cup and 2022 Commonwealth Games — before losing to Australia in both competitions, the women will be hoping to go one step further this time around.
T20 World Cup: Harmanpreet (C), Mandhana (VC), Shafali, Yastika (wk), Richa (wk) Jemimah, Harleen, Deepti, Devika, Radha, Renuka, Anjali, Pooja, Rajeshwari, Shikha. Reserves: Sabbineni, Rana, Meghna.
Tri-series: Harmanpreet (C), Mandhana (VC), Yastika (wk), Rodrigues, Harleen, Deepti, Devika, Rajeshwari, Radha, Renuka, Meghna, Anjali, Shushma (wk), Amanjot, Pooja, Meghana, Rana, Shikha. Note: Vastrakar’s inclusion in the squad is subject to fitness.
