India’s Test and ODI captain Mithali Raj and veteran seamer Jhulan Goswami have decided to rest from the upcoming domestic fifty-over competition. Seven of the eight players who featured in the 2021-22 Women’s Big Bash League in Australia have also opted out of the tournament, which is is scheduled to take place from December 4 to 9 in Vijayawada.
The Challenger Trophy was expanded from three teams to four this season and will serve as a great platform for the players. The promising fringe players will have an opportunity to make their case ahead of next year’s New Zealand tour, followed by the Women’s ODI World Cup slated in March-April.
Radha Yadav is the only player from the eight members that stayed back in Australia for the WBBL to have been selected for the Challenger trophy. Radha, who’s considered as a T20 specialist with only one ODI to her name, would want to make a mark in the fifty-over format.
It is understood that the eight WBBL players were given an option to sit out of the domestic tournament, considering they had been part of India’s touring party to England in June-July and Australia in September-October.
Seven members who chose this option include India’s T20I skipper Harmanpreet Kaur, Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Verma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Deepti Sharma, Richa Ghosh and Poonam Yadav.
Raj, who recently led her domestic team Railways to victory in the Senior One-Day Trophy, along with Goswami – both of whom played on the away tours – have been rested from the Challenger Trophy.
The four teams in the Challenger Trophy – India A, B, C and D will be led by Sneh Rana, Taniya Bhatia, Shikha Pandey, and Pooja Vastrakar, respectively. Each team, consisting of 15 members in the squad, will play each other once. All the matches will take place at Dr Gokaraju Laila GangaRaju ACA Cricket Complex-DVR Ground.
