Indian Women's squad announced for New Zealand tour; Veda Krishnamurthy dropped
What's the story?
The Indian women's Cricket team recently got a new coach in WV Raman and today the BCCI announced the women's squad which will represent India in New Zealand. While there were no major changes in the squad, one notable name missing from both the ODI and the T20I squads is Veda Krishnamurthy.
In case you did not know...
Veda Krishnamurthy has been playing international cricket since the last eight years and has been one of the top batswomen for India. And, she was expected to be a part of the Indian women's team to tour New Zealand in January next year. Krishnamurthy has scored eight half-centuries in the 43 ODIs she has played for India.
The heart of the matter
The Indian Women's team is scheduled to visit New Zealand for a three-match ODI series followed by a 3 match T20I series against the hosts. The selection panel headed by Hemlata Kala named the squads for the aforementioned series today in the presence of BCCI CEO Rahul Johri and acting secretary Amitabh Choudhary -
ODI Squad: Mithali Raj (captain), Punam Raut, Smriti Mandhana, Jemimah Rodrigues, Harmanpreet Kaur, Deepti Sharma, Tanya Bhatia (wk), Mona Meshram, Ekta Bist, Mansi Joshi, Dayalan Hemlatha, Poonam Yadav, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Jhulan Goswami, Shikha Pandey.
T20 Squad: Harmanpreet Kaur (captain), Smriti Mandhana (vc), Mithali Raj, Deepti Sharma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Anuja Patil, Dayalan Hemlatha, Mansi Joshi, Shikha Pandey, Tanya Bhatia (wk), Poonam Yadav, Ekta Bist, Radha Yadav, Arundhati Reddy, Priya Punia.
In the ODI squad, Veda Krishnamurthy has been replaced by Mona Meshram, who had earlier replaced her in the 3rd ODI against Australia earlier this year while uncapped Priya Punia was picked in place of Veda in the T20 squad. Also, all-rounder Shikha Pandey replaced injured fast bowler Pooja Vastrakar in the T20I squad
What's next?
Both Harmanpreet Kaur and Mithali Raj have settled their differences and the Indian women's team would look to make a fresh start under the new coach, WV Raman.