Harmanpreet Kaur, Smriti Mandhana and Deepti Sharma were announced as captains of Supernovas, Trailblazers and Velocity respectively by the Board of Control for Cricket in India on Monday.
The three teams will compete in the upcoming Women’s T20 Challenge to be played from May 23 to May 28 at Pune’s MCA stadium.
A total of 12 international players will compete in this year’s Women’s T20 Challenge.
The All-India Women’s Selection Committee picked the three squads – each comprising a total of 16 members.
Squads for the Women's T20 Challenge 2022
| Supernovas | Trailblazers | Velocity |
|---|---|---|
| Harmanpreet Kaur (C) | Smriti Mandhana (C) | Deepti Sharma (C) |
| Taniya Bhatia (VC) | Poonam Yadav (VC) | Sneh Rana (VC) |
| *Alana King | Arundhati Reddy | Shafali Verma |
| Ayush Soni | *Hayley Matthews | *Ayabonga Khaka |
| Chandu V | Jemimah Rodrigues | Kiran Navgire |
| *Deandra Dottin | Priyanka Priyadarshini | *Kate Cross |
| Harleen Deol | Rajeshwari Gayakwad | Keerthi James |
| Meghna Singh | Renuka Singh | *Laura Wolvaardt |
| Monica Patel | Richa Ghosh | Maya Sonawane |
| Muskan Malik | S. Meghana | *Natthakan Chantham |
| Pooja Vastrakar | Saiqa Ishaque | Radha Yadav |
| Priya Punia | *Salma Khatun | Aarti Kedar |
| Rashi Kanojia | *Sharmin Akter | Shivali Shinde |
| *Sophie Ecclestone | *Sophia Dunkley | Simran Bahadur |
| *Suné Luus | Sujata Mallik | Yastika Bhatia |
| Mansi Joshi | S.B.Pokharkar | Pranavi Chandra |
The BCCI is said to considering a women’s IPL from 2023 onward, so this could potentially be the last edition of the mini exhibition event that has been held concurrently with the men’s IPL playoffs. It was not held in 2021 while the men’s IPL happened in two stages across the year.
Among the notable absentees are Mithali Raj and Jhulan Goswami, who have not played domestic cricket either played since the end of the recent ODI World Cup. Also absent was Shikha Pandey, who was not part of the World Cup squad, but led Goa to the knockout stages of the recent Women’s T20 Trophy.
The 2022 Women’s T20 Challenge will begin with the Trailblazers taking on the Supernovas.
The complete schedule is below:
| Date | Time (IST) | Team A | Team B |
|---|---|---|---|
| 23-May-22 | 7:30 PM | Trailblazers | Supernovas |
| 24-May-22 | 3:30 PM | Supernovas | Velocity |
| 26-May-22 | 7:30 PM | Velocity | Trailblazers |
| 28-May-22 | 7:30 PM | Final | Final |
On Sunday, the BCCI awarded the title sponsorship rights for the Women’s T20 Challenge 2022 to Indian fantasy sports platform My11Circle after successfully participating in the bidding process.
BCCI president Sourav Ganguly said in a statement on Sunday, “It is our mission to promote and nurture the sport we love across all formats and the Women’s T20 Challenge has always been key to that endeavour. The continued success of the tournament both on and off the field is encouraging and gives us immense confidence that we are heading in the right direction.”
“India has a rich vein of cricketing talent and the continued growth of the Women’s T20 Challenge serves as the ideal platform for the players to test themselves against the very best, at a world-class tournament,” added BCCI secretary Jay Shah.