India named a 16-member squad for the three-match women’s ODI series against New Zealand, to be played on October 24, 27, and 29 at Ahmedabad. Harmanpreet Kaur will continue to lead the side, with Smriti Mandhana as her deputy.

Notable omissions include Pooja Vastrakar and Asha Sobhana Joy. Sobhana is nursing an injury, while Vastrakar picked up an injury during the recently concluded T20 World Cup and is being “rested for the series.

Wicketkeeper Richa Ghosh will also skip the series, which will clash with her 12th standard board examinations. It has been a frantic few years for Ghosh, who recently turned 21. She has already featured in a World Cup and three T20 World Cups, and won the Under-19 Women’s T20 World Cup with India in 2023.

At the same time, the squad boasts of uncapped cricketers like Priya Mishra, Tejal Hasabnis, Sayali Satghare, and Saima Thakor.

Satghare, a seam-bowling all-rounder, is presumably a like-for-like replacement for Vastrakar. Leg-spinner Mishra, a non-travelling reserve at the T20 World Cup stunned Australia A in an “ODI” in August, taking 5-14 to bowl out the hosts for only 72. In the “Test” that followed, she claimed 4-58 and 2-59.

On the same tour, Hasabnis made a fifty in each of the three “ODIs”. And seam bowler Thakor earned a reputation at the 2024 WPL by clean bowling Kaur, and on the next night, dismissing Shafali Verma and Jemimah Rodrigues. She was a travelling reserve at the T20 World Cup.

India squad for New Zealand series

Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Smriti Mandhana (vc), Yastika Bhatia (wk), Uma Chetry (wk), Shafali Verma, D Hemalatha, Deepti Sharma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Sayali Satghare, Arundhati Reddy, Renuka Singh Thakur, Tejal Hasabnis, Saima Thakor, Priya Mishra, Radha Yadav, Shreyanka Patil.

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