India have opted to rest regular captain Harmanpreet Kaur from their ODI squad to face Ireland, with Smriti Mandhana set to take charge in her place.
Kaur's omission comes after India's 3-0 win over West Indies last month. She returned scores of 34, 22 and 32 in that series, while she also made three unconverted starts in India's previous ODI series against Australia.
This will be the second time that Mandhana has led India's ODI side, having stood in for Kaur against New Zealand in October last year. She also captained India in two T20Is against West Indies which preceded the recent ODI series. Mandhana had a record-breaking 2024 in both T20Is and ODIs, making four centuries across 13 matches in the 50-over format, and scoring eight half-centuries in T20Is - the most by any women in a calendar year. Deepti Sharma will act as Mandhana's vice-captain against Ireland.
Among other notable omissions from the squad are Renuka Singh Thakur and Shafali Verma. Thakur has been rested from the ODI series after playing all of India's ODIs against Australia and West Indies as well as all three of their T20Is against West Indies. Verma continues to miss out after she was dropped from the ODI sides for both of India's last two series. She finished as the top run-scorer in India's domestic 50-over tournament which finished on December 30, having scored 527 runs in seven games at an average of 75.29.
Uncapped all-rounders Raghvi Bist and Sayali Satghare have been called up for the series. Bist made her T20I debut against West Indies but has yet to earn her first 50-over cap, while Satghare was part of India's ODI squad which faced New Zealand last October by did not make the XI.
The series will be Ireland's first-ever bilateral tour of India, and the first time the teams have faced each other in a bilateral series since 2006. All matches will be played in Rajkot, with the first scheduled for January 10 and the second for January 12 before the final match on January 15.
India Women's ODI squad to face Ireland: Smriti Mandhana (c), Deepti Sharma (vc), Pratika Rawal, Harleen Deol, Jemimah Rodrigues, Uma Chetry (wk), Richa Ghosh (wk), Tejal Hasabnis, Raghvi Bist, Minnu Mani, Priya Mishra, Tanuja Kanwer, Titas Sadhu, Saima Thakor, Sayali Satghare
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