Shafali Verma, the 20-year-old batter, has been left out of the India squad for the three-match ODI series against Australia, starting on December 5 in Brisbane.
Shreyanka Patil, Dylan Hemalatha, Uma Chetry, Asha Sobhana, Pooja Vastrakar and Sayali Satgare aren’t part of the squad either. Incidentally, Shreyanka, India’s star spinner, has been struggling with a shin injury, and she didn’t play in any of the games in the three-match ODI rubber versus New Zealand. Sobhana and Pooja too have had injury setbacks and weren’t part of the New Zealand series.
Shafali could aggregate just 97 runs in the just-concluded T20 World Cup in the UAE. In the last two years, she has also been averaging a mere 14 in the ODI format. Meanwhile, the inexperienced pair of Tejal Hasabnis and Saima Thakor have been included. Thakor made her ODI debut against New Zealand last month, taking four wickets. The medium pacer also made a useful contribution with the bat in the second game. On the other hand, Hasabnis accumulated 57 runs during that series.
Harleen Deol, the spinning all-rounder, returns to the set-up. Harleen, who has played 34 times for the country, was laid low by a knee injury while representing Gujarat Giants in the Women’s Premier League. Titas Sadhu, the medium pacer, who has partaken in nine T20Is, also finds a place. Minnu Mani, the off-spinner, who recently led India A against Australia A, has made it to the ODI squad for the first time.
Harmanpreet Kaur will once again lead the Indian contingent.
India squad: Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Smriti Mandhana (vc), Priya Punia, Jemimah Rodrigues, Harleen Deol, Yastika Bhatia (wk), Richa Ghosh (wk), Tejal Hasabnis, Deepti Sharma, Minnu Mani, Priya Mishra, Radha Yadav, Titas Sadhu, Arundhati Reddy, Renuka Singh Thakur, Saima Thakor
Series schedule:
First ODI: Brisbane, December 5
Second ODI: Brisbane, December 8
Third ODI: Perth, December 11