NEW DELHI, DEC 21,
Mithali Raj and Harmanpreet Kaur were on Friday retained as captains for the Indian women’s ODI and T20 team respectively while out-of-form Veda Krishnamurthy was dropped from both the squads picked for the New Zealand tour beginning next month.
India will play three ODIs in New Zealand beginning January 24 as part of the ICC Women’s Championship before playing three T20 Internationals. The New Zealand tour will be the team’s first assignment after its controversial exit from the World T20 last month when it lost to England in the semifinals. The 15-member squad for ODIs and T20s was announced a day after W.V. Raman was appointed as the head coach. Gary Kirsten was ahead of Raman in the pecking order but the former India men’s coach was not ready to give up on his role with Royal Challengers Bangalore in the IPL. The BCCI had invited fresh applications after Ramesh Powar’s term ended on November 30, following the World T20 loss in which he and Harmanpreet had collectively decided to drop senior player Mithali for the all-important semifinal, triggering a massive controversy. The women’s team stood divided with Harmanpreet and her T20 deputy Smriti Mandhana backing Powar for an extension while Mithali was against such a move. However, both Harmanpreet and Mithali had agreed on sorting out their differences going forward.
While Mithali turned up for the selection committee meeting on Friday, Harmanpreet, who is playing the Women’s Big Bash in Australia, joined via Skype. Selection panel chief Hemlata Kala announced the squads in the presence of BCCI CEO Rahul Johri and acting secretary Amitabh Choudhary. Veda was dropped from both the teams following her lean run, Hemlata told PTI. Mona Meshram replaced Veda in the ODI squad while two changes were made in the squad that went to the West Indies for the World T20.
Shikha Pandey replaced injured pacer Pooja Vastrakar in the T20 squad while uncapped Priya Punia was picked in place of Veda.
ODI Squad:
Mithali Raj (captain), Poonam Raut, Smriti Mandhana, Jemimah Rodrigues, Harmanpreet Kaur, Deepti Sharma, Tanya Bhatia (wk), Mona Meshram, Ekta Bist, Mansi Joshi, Dayalan Hemlatha, Poonam Yadav, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Jhulan Goswami, Shikha Pandey.
T20 Squad:
Harmanpreet Kaur (captain), Smriti Mandhana (vc), Mithali Raj, Deepti Sharma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Anuja Patil, Dayalan Hemlatha, Mansi Joshi, Shikha Pandey, Tanya Bhatia (wk), Poonam Yadav, Ekta Bist, Radha Yadav, Arundhati Reddy, Priya Punia.
