Sneh Rana, Taniya Bhatia return as India Women’s squad for Commonwealth Games is announced

Bowling all-rounder Sneh Rana, keeper Taniya Bhatia and batter Harleen Deol have been included in India Women’s 15-member squad for the upcoming Commonwealth Games, which begins on July 29 in Birmingham.

Rana was not part of the recently concluded white-ball series in Sri Lanka. As for Taniya, she has been included as one of the two keeping options along with Yastika Bhatia.

Interestingly, 24-year-old Taniya hasn’t played a T20I match since the World Cup final against Australia in Melbourne in March of 2020. Harleen featured in the three-match ODI series against Sri Lanka but was not part of the T20Is.

The squad will be led by Harmanpreet Kaur, with Smriti Mandhana serving as the vice-captain. Richa Ghosh, Simran Bahadur and Poonam Yadav have been named as the three standby players.

This year’s Commonwealth Games (CWG 2022) will mark the debut of women's cricket in the competition. Eight teams will be taking part in the tournament, which will be played in the T20I format. India have been placed in Group A alongside Australia, Pakistan and Barbados.

India Women will begin their CWG 2022 campaign by taking on Australia on July 29. They will face arch-rivals Pakistan in their next group match on July 31, which will be followed by the match against Barbados on August 3.

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India’s women’s squad for CWG 2022: Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Smriti Mandhana (vc), Shafali Verma, Sabbhineni Meghana, Taniya Bhatia (wk), Yastika Bhatia (wk), Deepti Sharma, Rajeshari Gayakwad, Pooja Vastrakar, Meghna Singh, Renuka Thakur, Jemimah Rodrigues, Radha Yadav, Harleen Deol, Sneh Rana

Standby players: Richa Ghosh, Simran Bahadur, Poonam Yadav

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India women had a successful white-ball tour of Sri Lanka

India women had an impressive tour of Sri Lanka, winning five of the six white-ball matches. They beat Sri Lanka 2-1 in the T20I series before thumping the hosts 3-0 in the one-dayers.

Indian captain Harmanpreet was named Player of the T20I series for scoring 92 runs and claiming one wicket. She walked away with the same award for the ODIs, scoring 119 runs and picking up two wickets.