India pick uncapped Yastika Bhatia, Meghna Singh for Australia Tests

The BCCI have announced the Indian Women’s squad for the extended tour of Australia next month, and the ODI and Test squad features two bolters in the form of Baroda’s Yastika Bhatia and Railways’ Meghna Singh. While left-handed batter Bhatia has seen herself get promoted to the senior side after impressing at the Junior Level and in emerging tournaments, Railways women pacer Meghna Singh has been rewarded for her fine showing in the 2020/21 Women’s Senior One Day Trophy, where she claimed 5 wickets in as many matches at an economy rate of 4.25. 

The board have opted to announce the same squads for both ODIs and T20Is, and the list sees all of Sneh Rana, Taniya Bhatia, Deepti Sharma, Punam Raut and Pooja Vastrakar retain their places on the back of an impressive showing in the one-off Test against England earlier this year. 

Richa Ghosh, who featured in the limited-over matches against England, also finds a place in the Test squad this time around, as does Ekta Bisht who, like Ghosh, only featured in the limited-overs leg of the series against England. The squad sees the return of the fit-again Rajeshwari Gayakwad, who missed the England tour due to injury, but there is no place for Indrani Roy, who travelled with the team to England on the back of an impressive showing in the Women’s Senior One Day Trophy. 

The 18-member ODI and Test squad will be led by Mithali Raj, while the 17-member T20I squad will be captained by Harmanpreet Kaur. Both the squads feature all the usual suspects, including the likes of Shafali Verma and Jemimah Rodrigues, who featured in the inaugural edition of The Hundred.

The tour Down Under will kick-off with the ODIs on September 19 at the North Sydney Oval in Sydney.

India Women’s squad for one-off Test & ODI series

Mithali Raj (Captain), Harmanpreet Kaur (vice-captain), Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Verma, Punam Raut, Jemimah Rodrigues, Deepti Sharma, Sneh Rana, Yastika Bhatia, Taniya Bhatia (wicket-keeper), Shikha Pandey, Jhulan Goswami, Meghna Singh, Pooja Vastrakar, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Poonam Yadav, Richa Ghosh, Ekta Bisht.

India Women’s T20I squad

Harmanpreet Kaur (Captain), Smriti Mandhana (vice-captain), Shafali Verma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Deepti Sharma, Sneh Rana, Yastika Bhatia, Shikha Pandey, Meghna Singh, Pooja Vastrakar, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Poonam Yadav, Richa Ghosh (wicket-keeper), Harleen Deol, Arundhati Reddy, Radha Yadav, Renuka Singh Thakur.