The Indian team has handed debuts to five cricketers and this include Sneh Rana— who last played back in February 2016. The 27-year-old from Dehradun got a national call up, which was almost a ‘surprise’ to the young lady, who lost her father in April this year. She made her international debut in 2014 against Sri Lanka. Besides her, the other four cricketers who were handed debut: Deepti Sharma, Pooja Vastrakar, Shafali Verma, and Tanya Bhatia.
This is the lone Test match for the Ladies in England and they will also play a Test in Australia later this year.
Meanwhile popular opening batsman, the 17-year-old Shafali Verma too will get a taste of international cricket. This young lady has no-holds-barred approach when it comes to opening the batting and the fans are expecting another hell of an innings when she comes out to bat at Bristol. The management has also omitted Poonam Yadav from the playing eleven, they instead fielded three seamers: Jhulan Goswami, Shikha Pandey and Pooja Vastrakar. Bowling all-rounder Rana and part-timer Harmanpreet Kaur will also shoulder bowling responsibilities.
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A favourable record in England and “positive mindset" despite inadequate preparation time will spur the Indian women’s cricket team when it takes on the seasoned hosts in its first Test engagement in nearly seven years here from Wednesday.After multiple quarantines in India and UK, the Mithali Raj-led squad got little over a week to prepare for its first red ball game since November 2014.
Mithali was among the seven current players, who were a part of that victorious eleven against South Africa in Mysuru.While experienced players like the skipper, her deputy Harmanpreet Kaur, Smriti Mandhana and Jhulan Goswami have not played red ball cricket at all in recent times, it will be an even tougher test for the younger lot who don’t get to play first-class matches in domestic cricket.
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