Surprisingly, the squad does not include star batswomen Jemimah Rodrigues and all-rounder Shikha Pandey due to lack of form. Rodrigues failed to hit the double figure mark during the last year in all the international assignments she was a part of. Pandey has been similarly off colour.
Here’s a look at India’s squad for the ODI World Cup and New Zealand series:
Mithali Raj (captain), Harmanpreet Kaur (vice-captain), Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Verma, Yastika Bhatia, Deepti Sharma, Richa Ghosh (wicket-keeper), Sneh Rana, Jhulan Goswami, Pooja Vastrakar, Meghna Singh, Renuka Singh Thakur, Taniya Bhatia (wicket-keeper), Rajeshwari Gayakwad and Poonam Yadav.
Standby Players: Sabbhineni Meghana, Ekta Bisht and Simran Dil Bahadur.
India’s squad for one-off T20I against New Zealand:
Harmanpreet Kaur (captain), Smriti Mandhana (vice-captain), Shafali Verma, Yastika Bhatia, Deepti Sharma, Richa Ghosh (wicket-keeper), Sneh Rana, Pooja Vastrakar, Meghna Singh, Renuka Singh Thakur, Taniya Bhatia (wicket-keeper), Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Poonam Yadav, Ekta Bisht, S. Meghna and Simran Dil Bahadur.
Team India play their first World Cup fixture against Pakistan on March 6, 2022 at the Bay Oval, Tauranga. The squad will also feature in the 5-match ODI series against New Zealand starting from 11th February, 2022.
After the game against Pakistan in the Women’s World Cup, India will square off against New Zealand (March 10), West Indies (March 12), England (March 16), Australia (March 19), Bangladesh (March 22), and South Africa (March 27) in the group stage.