Players asked to report to Mumbai by October 13 for the Women’s T20 Challenge  

Around 30 Indian players who have been selected for the upcoming edition of the Women’s T20 Challenge to be held in the UAE have been asked to reach Mumbai by October 13, according to a Times of India report. Although the three teams have been finalised internally, the BCCI is yet to make an announcement. The three teams from the last year will be in action.



All the selected Indian players have been asked to submit their COVID-19 reports to the BCCI by Saturday (October 10) and it is understood that the Board will make the teams public after accessing all the reports. While the overseas players will fly directly to Dubai on October 21, the Indian players will have to stay in quarantine for a week in Mumbai before they fly out to Dubai. They will be tested multiple times during that period.



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After arriving in Dubai, the players will undergo another week of quarantine that ends on October 28. They will enter the event’s bio-bubble after three negative RT-PCR tests. The tournament will run from November 4 to 9. “The players have been informed and a Whatsapp group has been created. A few U-19 players have also been picked. It will give them a lot of exposure,” a BCCI official told PTI on Friday (October 9).



Veterans Mithali Raj and Jhulan Goswami, who have retired from international T20s, will feature again in the tournament. The matches will be played at Sharjah but there has been a question over the lack of preparation time. The players have not played any cricket for the last six months and will get hardly a week’s time for preparation.



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“It will be a challenge for sure. We have been training individually but the intensity of a team environment cannot be matched. We will quarantine in Mumbai for more than a week and then another week in Dubai. There will be three to four days before the event starts. Obviously, it is not going to be easy to perform,” a player told TOI on conditions of anonymity.