Squads for Women’s T20 Challenge announced; Australians miss out due to BCCI-CA dispute

The BCCI has announced the three squads for the upcoming Women’s T20 Challenge. The big news which has come out from the announcement though is the absence of the Australian players due to an ongoing disagreement between the Indian board and Cricket Australia.

The event has expanded from last year which was a one-off match to a three-team tournament. The three teams competing in the tournament will be Trailblazers, Supernovas and Velocity. The matches will take place between May 6 and 11 in Jaipur.

Some of the biggest names in Australian cricket like Meg Lanning and Ellyse Perry competed in the first edition of the tournament but are missing from the squads which have been announced this year.

According to various reports, the BCCI and CA are embroiled in a dispute over a scheduled ODI series between India and Australia in March 2020. CA wants the series to be scrapped as it would clash with the schedule of the Big Bash League and would also deprive them a series in home conditions. A solution has still not been found between the two parties and it has led to the Australian Women missing out on the tournament.

The tournament has been welcomed in many quarters with the clamour for a full-fledged Women’s IPL continuing to grow.

Despite the Australian women missing out, some big-name international players like Suzie Bates and Danielle Wyatt will still participate in the tournament.

Here are the three squads which have been announced for the Women’s T20 Challenge:

Supernovas squad: Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Anuja Patil, Arundhati Reddy, Chamari Athapaththu (Sri Lanka), Jemimah Rodrigues, Lea Tahuhu (New Zealand), Mansi Joshi, Natalie Sciver (England), Poonam Yadav, Priya Punia, Radha P Yadav, Sophie Devine (New Zealand), Taniya Bhatia (WK).

Trailblazers squad: Smriti Mandhana (c), Bharti Fulmali, Dayalan Hemlatha, Deepti Sharma, Harleen Deol, Jasia Akhtar, Jhulan Goswami, R Kalpana (WK), Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Shakera Selman (West Indies), Sophie Ecclestone (England), Stafanie Taylor (West Indies), Suzie Bates (New Zealand).

Velocity squad: Mithali Raj (c), Amelia Kerr (New Zealand), Danielle Wyatt (England), Devika Vaidya, Ekta Bisht, Hayley Matthews (West Indies), Jahanara Alam (Bangladesh), Komal Zhanzad, Shafali Verma, Shikha Pandey, Sushma Verma (WK), Sushree Dibyadarshini, Veda Krishnamurthy.