Women's Cricket: Meghna, Yastika New Faces In India Squad To AUS

Railways medium-pacer Meghna Singh and Baroda left-handed batswoman Yastika Bhatia, both uncapped, have been included in India's combined squad for the one-off Test and ODIs, as well as the squad for T20 International series to be held in September and October in Australia.

Left-arm spinner Rajeshwari Gayakwad, who missed the recent tour of England due to knee injury, has also been included for all formats. From the combined Test and ODI squad that had recently toured England, Radha Yadav, Priya Punia, Arundhati Reddy and Indrani Roy have been axed.

Himachal Pradesh's 25-year-old pace bowler Renuka Singh Thakur has been picked for T20Is. While Mithali Raj will lead the team in Test and ODIs with Harmanpreet Kaur as her deputy, the latter will take charge for the T20 Internationals and have Smriti Mandhana as her deputy in the shortest format.

The series will begin with the ODIs on September 19, 22 and 24. The ODIs will be followed by one-off Test from September 30 to October 3. The Test match will be followed by T20 Internationals on October 7, 9 and 11.

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.