Shafali Verma Included In Women's ODI, Test Squads For England Tour

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Dashing teenaged opener, Shafali Verma was on Friday included in the Indian women's Test and ODI squads for the June-July tour of England after her absence from the South Africa ODIs in March had drawn widespread criticism.

The 17-year-old Rohtak-based girl is yet to play a Test or an ODI. She has played 22 Women's T20 Internationals so far.

Mithali Raj will lead the Test and ODI side while Harmanpreet Kaur, who is Mithali's deputy in the longer formats, will lead the team in T20 International series.

Pace bowling all-rounder Shikha Pandey and wicketkeeper Tanya Bhatia, who were excluded from the limited overs home series against South Africa, have been recalled.

Shikha and Taniya were excluded from both ODI and T20I series, unlike Shafali, who was not considered only for the ODI leg but played the T20Is.

Left arm spinner Rajeshwari Gayakwad, who is down with Covid-19, has been left out.

This will be the first assignment under new coach Ramesh Powar, now into his second tenure. Powar replaced WV Raman on Thursday.

India are scheduled to play one-off Test in Bristol from June 16-19. It will be followed by three ODIs and three T20 Internationals. The ODIs will be played in Bristol (June 27), Taunton (June 30) and Worcester (July 3). The T20Is will be played in Nothampton (on July 9), Hove (July 11) and Chelmsford (July 15).

Test and ODI squad: Mithali Raj (Captain), Smriti Mandhana, Harmanpreet Kaur (vice-captain), Punam Raut, Priya Punia, Deepti Sharma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Shafali Verma, Sneh Rana, Taniya Bhatia (wicket-keeper), Indrani Roy (wicket-keeper), Jhulan Goswami, Shikha Pandey, Pooja Vastrakar, Arundhati Reddy, Poonam Yadav, Ekta Bisht, Radha Yadav

T20I squad: Harmanpreet Kaur (Captain) Smriti Mandhana (vice-captain), Deepti Sharma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Shafali Verma, Richa Ghosh, Harleen Deol, Sneh Rana, Taniya Bhatia (wicket-keeper), Indrani Roy (wicket-keeper), Shikha Pandey, Pooja Vastrakar, Arundhati Reddy, Poonam Yadav, Ekta Bisht, Radha Yadav, Simaran Dil Bahadur