Anushka Sharma to captain India A women against England A, with Shreyanka Patil in all three squads

The BCCI has named three squads for India A’s home series against England A, a seven-match, all-format tour that starts in Pune on November 30 and ends in Mumbai on December 19. Anushka Sharma will captain India A in the T20s and the one-day matches, with Minnu Mani as her deputy, and Mani leads the side in the multi-day match. The squads were announced on Wednesday, November 11, in a media advisory signed by the board’s honorary secretary, Devajit Saikia, and picked by the Women’s Selection Committee.

The three squads

Each squad has 15 players. The T20 and one-day groups share a core of Vrinda Dinesh, Tanisha Singh, Anushka, Niki Prasad, the wicketkeepers G Kamalini and Shipra Giri, Mani, Shreyanka Patil, Saima Thakor and Kashvee Gautam. The T20 party adds Sanika Chalke, Amanjot Kaur, Vaishnavi Sharma, Prema Rawat and Monica Patel. The one-day side instead has Priya Punia, Tejal Hasabnis, Amisha Bahukandi, Shabnam Shakil and Akshita Bhagat.

The multi-day squad is the most different. It brings in Shubha Satheesh, Purvaja Verlekar, Henreitta Perera, Uma Chetry and Happy Kumari, and Hasabnis is Mani’s vice-captain. Five players appear in all three lists: Tanisha, Shipra, Mani, Patil and Thakor.

Patil’s return

The name drawing most attention is Shreyanka Patil, the Karnataka all-rounder, who is picked for every match. According to reports, she took consecutive five-wicket hauls in the Senior Women’s T20 Trophy, 5/26 against Maharashtra on October 27 and 5/18 against Goa two days later. She last played for India during the Asian Games campaign and was left out of the home series against Zimbabwe and of the squads for the South Africa tour.

Kashvee Gautam is also back. The fast-bowling all-rounder is in the T20 and one-day squads and not the multi-day one. Reports say she last played for India on the T20I tour of South Africa in April, then needed knee surgery, and has resumed competitive cricket for Chandigarh in the ongoing Senior Women’s T20 Trophy.

The advisory carries no statement from the selectors and gives no reasons for any pick.

How it fits the South Africa tour

Six of the India A players are also named in the senior squads for South Africa that the BCCI announced on November 9, which we reported in our story on Smriti Mandhana’s squads. Anushka, Prasad, Kamalini, Rawat and Amanjot are in the senior T20I group, and Vaishnavi Sharma is in the ODI squad. Prema Rawat hit the fastest fifty in women’s T20 cricket, off 14 balls, in the same trophy on November 2, as we reported in her record innings. Prasad made her India debut against Zimbabwe in Raipur, which we covered in the first T20I.

The dates sit close together. India A’s one-day matches finish on December 14, two days before the senior team’s first ODI in Paarl on December 16, and the senior Test in Gqeberha starts on December 9. The senior T20Is run from December 26 to 30. None of the six is in the senior Test squad, according to the BCCI lists of November 9.

India A women v England A, November 30 to December 19

1. November 30First T20, Pune, 1:00 pm IST
2. December 3Second T20, Pune, 6:00 pm IST
3. December 5Third T20, Pune, 6:00 pm IST
4. December 8First one-day match, Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai, 9:00 am IST
5. December 11Second one-day match, Mumbai, 2:00 pm IST
6. December 14Third one-day match, Mumbai, 2:00 pm IST
7. December 19Multi-day match, Mumbai, 9:30 am IST

The schedule

The three T20s are at the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium in Pune on November 30, December 3 and December 5. The first starts at 1:00 pm IST and the other two at 6:00 pm IST. The one-day matches are at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on December 8, 11 and 14, at 9:00 am, 2:00 pm and 2:00 pm IST. The multi-day match, also at the Wankhede, begins on December 19 at 9:30 am IST.

Why it matters

India A tours are the board’s main way of watching players outside the senior squad in a set run of matches. This series gives Patil and Gautam, who are not in the senior tour parties, two weeks of white-ball cricket and a red-ball game against an international side, and it gives the six players who are in both lists a lead-in to South Africa. How the selectors will use it has not been stated.

What happens next

The first T20 is on November 30 in Pune. The England A squad has not been named in the advisories we read, and the BCCI has not said whether it will add standby players to the India A lists.