New Delhi:
The India women's cricket team will embark on a tour to West Indies in November and they will play five Twenty20 Internationals and three ODIs. Mithali Raj has been appointed as the ODI skipper and Harmanpreet Kaur will be the Twenty20 International skipper. The series will begin with the ODIs in Antigua at the Sir Vivian Richards stadium. The first match will be played on November 1 and it will be followed by two more games on November 3 and November 6. The ODIs will be followed by five Twenty20 Internationals.
The first two T20Is on November 9 and 10 will be played at the Darren Sammy International Stadium in St Lucia and it will be followed by three more T20Is at the National Stadium in Guyana which will be played on November 14, 17 and 20.
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Interestingly, both Mithali and Harmanpreet return to the site of where they both apparently fell out during the World T20 2018 which was held in the Caribbean. In the semi-final against England, Harmanpreet decided to bench Mithali Raj, the leading run-getter for India in ODIs and T20s and the team went on to lose the match by eight wickets to crash out of the tournament.
Also Read | Mithali Raj hits out at critics, says many players have worse strike-rate than her
Following the conclusion of the match, things took an ugly turn. Mithali’s manager called Harmanpreet a "manipulative, lying, immature, undeserving captain" in a series of tweets. Following the incident, Ramesh Powar, the coach of the side admitted that his professional relationship with Mithali was strained as he always found her ‘aloof’ and ‘difficult to handle’. This prompted Mithali to slam Powar and accuse Committee of Administrators head Diana Edulji of bias. “For the first time in a 20 year long career, I felt deflated, depressed and let down. I am forced to think if my services to my country are of any value to a few people in power who are out to destroy me and break my confidence,” Mithali wrote on her Twitter handle.
Harmanpreet, Smriti Mandhana and Jemimah Rodrigues are expected to miss the fifth edition of the Women's Big Bash League due to national commitments and the demand for the BCCI for resting their key players ahead of the World T20. The Women's Big Bash League is expected to begin from October 23 to December 8 but that is coinciding with India's international summer. After the Twenty20 Internationals, India play South Africa for three ODIs and they will also tour the West Indies for one month.
Indian Women’s ODI squad: Mithali Raj (Captain), Harmanpreet Kaur (vice-captain), Smriti Mandhana, Jemimah Rodrigues, Deepti Sharma, Punam Raut, D Hemalatha, Jhulan Goswami, Shikha Pandey, Mansi Joshi, Poonam Yadav, Ekta Bisht, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Taniya Bhatia (wicket-keeper), Priya Punia, Sushma Verma
Indian Women’s T20I squad: Harmanpreet Kaur (Captain), Smriti Mandhana (vice-captain), Jemimah Rodrigues, Shafali Verma, Harleen Deol, Deepti Sharma, Taniya Bhatia (wicket-keeper), Poonam Yadav, Radha Yadav, Veda Krishnamurthy, Anuja Patil, Shikha Pandey, Pooja Vastrakar, Mansi Joshi, Arundhati Reddy
