Published: Jan 03, 2017, 05:06 PM (IST)
Edited: Jan 03, 2017, 05:18 PM (IST)
After an emphatic victory in Asian Cricket Council Women’s T20 2016 (ACC WT20 2016) for the sixth time, India Women are all set to start fresh from February 3 in ICC Women’s World Cup Qualifier 2017. BCCI on Tuesday announced the squad who will tour Colombo for the tournament. Mithali Raj, who was the Player of the tournament in the Asia Cup will be leading the side while Harmanpreet Kaur will be the deputy. She has been impressive in her international stint in Big Bash League (BBL). Vanitha VR, who was part of the ACC WT20 2016, has been dropped from the side. Sukanya Parida, a well known player in domestic arena is also part of the squad along with Devika Vaidya.
With exactly a month to go for the tournament to kick-off, India Women will be part of Group A that includes Sri Lanka, Ireland, Zimbabwe and Thailand. Meanwhile, Group B includes Pakistan, Bangladesh, PNG and Scotland. West Indies, Australia, England and New Zealand have already progressed to the World Cup with just four spots left for grabs. The matches will be held at four different venues across Colombo.
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The sides finishing in top four of the Super Six stage will join the champions who have already progressed. Each side will play four matches in the league stage following which the top three from each group will progress to Super Six stage. The top four sides from the Super Six stage, in which each side will play three matches against teams from the other group, will complete the eight-team line-up for the ICC Women’s World Cup 2017, while the top two sides will battle out for the title in the final of February 21.
The ICC Women World Cup 2017 will begin on June 26 and the final will held at Lord’s on July 23. Bristol and Derby will host the semi-final while Leicester and Taunton are the other venues for the tournament.
India Women squad:
Mithali Raj (c),Harmanpreet Kaur, Smriti Mandhana, MD Thirush Kamini, Veda Krishnamurthy, Devika Vaidya, Sushma Verma (wk), Jhulan Goswami, Shikha Pandey, Sukanya Parida, Poonam Yadav, Ekta Bisht, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Deepti Sharma.
