By Wisden India Staff
Mithali Raj and Harmanpreet Kaur have been named captains of India Blue and India Red respectively in the Women’s Challenger Trophy 2016, which begins on Saturday (October 22). Dipti Sharma will lead the Under-19 India Green side in the tournament, to be played in Baroda till October 25.
Raj, who missed the tournament last year with back spasms, will play alongside her Railways teammates Punam Raut, who scored an unbeaten 136-ball 102 against Delhi in the final league game of the Inter-State Senior Women’s one-day tournament, MD Thirushkamini and Poonam Yadav.
Jhulan Goswami, who was also unavailable for last year’s tournament through injury, will team up with the likes of Harmanpreet, Smriti Mandhana, Rajeshwari Gayakwad and Devika Vaiyda, who led the Under-19 side last year, in the India Red squad this time around.
Neelam Chaudhary, the top scorer in the one-day tournament with 271 runs in six matches, and Neha Tanwar, the fifth highest scorer with 201 in five matches, both missed out on selection.
India Red will take on India Blue in the opener on Saturday, with the final to be played on Tuesday.
Teams:
India Blue: Mithali Raj (capt), Punam Raut, MD Thirushkamini, Mona Meshram, Veda Krishnamurthy, Madhusmita Behera, Anuja Patil, Kavita Patil, Shikha Pandey, Mansi Joshi, Preeti Bose, Punam Yadav, Sushma Verma.
India Red: Harmanpreet Kaur (capt), Smriti Mandana, S Meghana, Devika Vaidya, VR Vanitha, N Nirajana, Jhulan Goswami, Sukanya Parida, Ekta Bisht, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Mandeep Kaur, D Hemlata, Kalpana R.
India Green U-19: Dipti Sharma (capt), Tanushree Sarkar, Jemimah Rodrigues, Manali Dakshine, E Padmaja, Radha Yadav, Prathyusha C, S I Gulia, Nazhat Parween, Disha Kasat, Anusha N, Yashi Pandey, Sanjula Naik.
First published on Wisden India.
