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Shafali Verma, the teen Indian women’s batting sensation, has received her maiden ODI call-up ahead of the all-format tour of England. Dropped for the ODI and the T20I series against South Africa at home, Shikha Pandey and Tanya Bhatia have returned to the national setup.
By bringing the 17-year-old into the ODI team, the selectors have looked to resolve an issue that hurt the women’s team against South Africa earlier in the year as she can infuse energy into the innings at the top of the order and give India momentum.
Shafali is also part of the Test squad, with the selectors opting for a common 18-member squad for the Test and ODIs and a separate 17-member one for the T20Is against England. The Test and ODI team will be led by the great Mithali Raj, while Harmanpreet Kaur will be at the helm of affairs in T20Is.
Pandey and Bhatia have returned to the national squad after missing the T20I series against SA at home. The selectors left out left-arm spinner Rajeshwari Gayakwad, who hasn’t recovered from a bout of COVID-19 but have included uncapped wicketkeeper Indrani Roy.
The tour will also be Ramesh Powar’s first assignment after returning as Indian women’s head coach after two years earlier this week, replacing WV Raman. Raman had come in place of Powar in 2018 after a controversial fall-out between the former India off-spinner and Mithali over her axing from the playing XI for that year’s T20 World Cup semi-final against England in the Caribbean.
The tour begins with the much-anticipated one-off Test match from June 16, also featuring three ODIs on June 27, 30 and July 3 and as many T20Is on June 9, 11 and 15, respectively.
Test & ODI squad
Mithali Raj (capt), Smriti Mandhana, Harmanpreet Kaur (vc), Punam Raut, Priya Punia, Deepti Sharma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Shafali Verma, Sneh Rana, Taniya Bhatia (wk), Indrani Roy (wk), Jhulan Goswami, Shikha Pandey, Pooja Vastrakar, Arundhati Reddy, Poonam Yadav, Ekta Bisht, Radha Yadav.
T20I squad
Harmanpreet Kaur (capt), Smriti Mandhana (vc), Deepti Sharma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Shafali Verma, Richa Ghosh, Harleen Deol, Sneh Rana, Taniya Bhatia (wk), Indrani Roy (wk), Shikha Pandey, Pooja Vastrakar, Arundhati Reddy, Poonam Yadav, Ekta Bisht, Radha Yadav, Simaran Dil Bahadur.
