Indian squad for 2017 ICC Women's World Cup announced

What’s the story?

The Indian squad for the 2017 ICC Women’s World Cup to be held in England was announced on Monday with no real surprises as Mithali Raj was named skipper of the squad comprising of 15 members.

20-year-old Smriti Mandhana, who had picked up a serious knee injury during the Big Bash League in 2016 also makes a comeback to the side, replacing Devika Vaidya, as the only change from the side that is currently engaged in a quadrangular tournament in South Africa.

Watch: Mithali Raj’s awesome batting

Extra Cover: Mithali Raj – A living legend in Women’s Cricket

In case you didn’t know....

Indi will be hoping to do much better than their previous outing at the biggest stage of them all when playing at home, they surrendered meekly finishing bottom of the points table in a group which featured Sri Lanka, England, and the West Indies.

India’s best run at the World Cup came during the 2005 edition when they made their way to the final, but ended up on the losing side against Australia. They have also been semi-finalists on three other occasions (1997, 2000 and 2009) and the 2017 edition will be the ninth time the team competes in the biggest tournament in Women’s cricket having emerged victorious in the Qualifier tournament held in Sri Lanka in February beating South Africa by 1 wicket.

The details

The 15-member squad boasts of many talented players but one player that the opposition will be watching out for will be in-form Deepti Sharma, who scored a mammoth 188 against Ireland Women today – the second highest individual score ever in the history of women’s cricket.

Also keen to make an impression will be Jhulan Goswami who has made a good comeback from injury picking up four wickets from two matches in the ongoing quadrangular series involving Ireland, Zimbabwe, and South Africa. Goswami is the highest wicket-taker in women’s ODI cricket and will be India’s most potent weapon in the bowling attack.

Extra Cover: Jhulan Goswami becomes the highest-ever wicket taker in women's ODI cricket

The squad also provides two wicket-keeping options for skipper Mithali Raj to choose from with the BCCI’s All-India Women's Selection Committee opting to keep faith with Nuzhat Parween, who made her ODI debut against Ireland during the quadrangular, as a back-up to the experienced Sushma Verma.

Along with Mithali, India’s highest run-getter in Women’s cricket, the fans will be hopeful that the duo of Smriti Mandhana and Harmanpreet Kaur can live up to the reputation that earned them a call-up for the Big Bash League last year.

Squad: Mithali Raj (c), Harmanpreet Kaur, Veda Krishnamurthy, Mona Meshram, Poonam Raut, Deepti Sharma, Jhulan Goswami, Shikha Pandey, Ekta Bisht, Sushma Verma (wk), Mansi Joshi, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Poonam Yadav, Nuzhat Parveen, Smriti Mandhana

What’s next

India begins their World Cup campaign against hosts England on June 24 in Derby where they will b hope to make a winning start en route to the final which will be played on July 23 in London.

The tournament features eight teams with all of them playing against each other once with the Top 4 progressing to the semi-finals stage.

Author’s take

With someone as experienced as Mithali Raj leading the side, the Indian side does have the potential to go all the way at the 2017 ICC World Cup. It will be interesting to see whether Mandhana can shake off the rustiness heading straight into such a big tournament having not featured for India in 2017 due to injury.

Harmanpreet Kaur and Jhulan Goswami are match-winners in their own right but it is vital that the side acclimatise to the conditions so that they can give their best shot at the title.