3 players who shouldn't have been picked in India Women's T20I squad for the Bangladesh series
India's senior women cricketers will be seen in action for the first time since the 2023 Women's Premier League (WPL) as they take on Bangladesh in three ODIs and as many T20Is later this month.
The BCCI has announced India's T20I squad for the assignment, and it frankly comes with a lot of surprises. Big names, including Richa Ghosh, Renuka Singh Thakur and Shikha Pandey, are absent from the side, while uncapped talents like Shreyanka Patil have also missed out.
India’s T20I squad: Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Smriti Mandhana (vc), Deepti Sharma, Shafali Verma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Yastika Bhatia (wk), Harleen Deol, Devika Vaidya, Uma Chetry (wk), Amanjot Kaur, S. Meghana, Pooja Vastrakar, Meghna Singh, Anjali Sarvani, Monica Patel, Rashi Kanojiya, Anusha Bareddy, Minnu Mani.
At the same time, there are a few surprise picks in the mix, perhaps without much merit to their inclusion. Here are three players who shouldn't have been picked in India Women's T20I squad for the Bangladesh series.
#3 Monica Patel
Monica Patel has played two ODIs for Team India, with no wickets to show for. She played two matches for the Gujarat Giants (GG) in WPL 2023, returning one wicket while being quite expensive in both games.
Prior to that, Monica played one game in the Senior Women's ODI Challenger Trophy and two in the Senior Women's T20 Challenger Trophy. She went wicketless in all three. Her performances for Karnataka haven't set the domestic stage on fire either.
Monica adds variety to the attack, but India already have one left-arm pacer to turn to in Anjali Sarvani. More importantly, the 24-year-old isn't the quickest and hasn't shown any special attributes to make up for her lack of pace.
There could come a time where Monica's game develops enough for her to play for the Women in Blue regularly, but as of now, she seems to be an unfinished product.
#2 Rashi Kanojiya
India have dropped Rajeshwari Gayakwad and Radha Yadav, who were their primary left-arm spinners ahead of WPL 2023. They have also not picked the breakout star of the franchise T20 tournament, Saika Ishaque.
Instead, the selectors have opted to blood two young left-arm spinners in Rashi Kanojiya and Anusha Bareddy. Anusha, who turned out for India A in their ACC Emerging Trophy run last month, has decent numbers at that level and can also bat a bit. Is Rashi, on the other hand, good enough to displace the three names mentioned earlier?
Rashi featured in the 2022 Women's T20 Challenge and sent down a decent spell, but she hasn't had much exposure at the top level. The 25-year-old has been thrown into the deep end, and India could've backed the likes of Radha, Rajeshwari and Saika instead.
#1 Meghna Singh
Meghna Singh has played all three formats for Team India. Her best performances have come at the ODI level, where she has returned 15 wickets from as many matches at an economy rate of 5.
However, on current form, does Meghna deserve a spot in the Indian T20I side? She went unsold at the WPL 2023 auction after being very ambitious with her base price, with other fast bowlers like Shikha Pandey impressing in the competition.
Meghna went wicketless in the two T20Is she played against Australia in December 2022. Prior to that, she went wicketless in three games in the Senior Women's T20 Challenger Trophy. In her last 10 recognized matches, the 29-year-old has recorded only two wickets.
Meghna can't bat either, making her inclusion rather strange. It remains to be seen if she can justify her selection with some telling performances against Bangladesh.