Renuka Singh earns maiden call up; Jemimah Rodrigues, Shikha Pandey omitted from World Cup squad

Jemimah Rodrigues and Shikha Pandey are the surprising omissions as India announced the squad for the Cricket World Cup 2022 in New Zealand that’s scheduled to be played from March this year. The same squad will also feature in a five-match ODI series against the hosts as a pre-cursor to the global event. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has also announced the team for one-off T20I on Thursday (January 6).



India, who were runners-up in the 2017 edition of the tournament, will start their campaign with the match against Pakistan on March 6. The 15-member squad will led Mithali Raj and Harmanpreet Kaur will serve as her deputy. Renuka Singh Thakur, who had an impressive T20I debut in Australia, earned a maiden call up to the ODI side with Pandey being omitted. Another pace-bowling debutant from the same series, Meghna Singh also retained her place in the side.



21-year-old Yastika Bhatia, who made a name for herself during the series down under, is also part of the side and will form the middle order along with Raj, Kaur and allrounder Deepti Sharma. Three standby players have been picked as per the norms that are in place because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Rodrigues and Pandey didn’t find a place in the reserve list either. Opener S Meghana, left-arm spinner Ekta Bisht and pace-bowling allrounder Simran Dil Bahadur are the three players that will be part of the extended squad.



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BCCI also named a 16-member squad for the one-off T20I against New Zealand that’s scheduled on February 9 ahead of the ODI series. First ODI will be played on February 11 and the series will end on February 24.



India squad for ICC World Cup 2022 & New Zealand ODIs: Mithali Raj (c), Harmanpreet Kaur (vc), Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Verma, Yastika Bhatia, Deepti Sharma, Richa Ghosh (wk), Sneh Rana, Jhulan Goswami, Pooja Vastrakar, Meghna Singh, Renuka Singh Thakur, Taniya Bhatia (wk), Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Poonam Yadav.



Standby Players: S. Meghana, Ekta Bisht, Simran Dil Bahadur



India squad for one-off T20I vs New Zealand: Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Smriti Mandhana (vc), Shafali Verma, Yastika Bhatia, Deepti Sharma, Richa Ghosh (wk), Sneh Rana, Pooja Vastrakar, Meghna Singh, Renuka Singh Thakur, Taniya Bhatia (wk), Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Poonam Yadav, Ekta Bisht, S. Meghana, Simran Dil Bahadur.