India, England and Australia play a grand rehearsal T20 tri-series just before the Women’s World T20

With just 20 days to go for the much awaited ICC Women’s World T20, Australia, England and India lock horns against each other in a T20 tri-series hosted by the Aussies. This tri-series will be nothing short of a grand rehearsal for the big finale starting February 21.

Each team will play four games, two games each against the same opponent. The two visitors will face off in the first match of the tri-series on January 31 at Canberra. Since the venue for the ICC Women’s World T20 and this tri-series is Australia, the teams would look to acclimatize themselves and try out different combinations that are suited to play in these conditions. The players will get adequate game time and the team management will be in a better position to finalize their playing XI for the World Cup.

Australia and India, especially will benefit a lot from this tri-series as the two teams are placed in Group A of the Women’ World T20. As per the latest ICC Women’s World T20 rankings, Australia is numero uno with England and Indian sitting comfortably at number two and number four positions respectively.

Here is the schedule for the tri-series:

Date	Match	Venue
Jan 31, Fri	England vs India	Canberra
Feb 1, Sat	Australia vs England	Canberra
Feb 2, Sun	Australia vs India	Canberra
Feb 7, Fri	England vs India	Melbourne
Feb 8, Sat	Australia vs India	Melbourne
Feb 9, Sun	Australia vs England	Melbourne
Feb 12, Wed	TBC vs TBC (Final)	Melbourne

Source: Female Cricket

Indian Women's team for T20 World Cup finalized

The ICC Women's World T20 is all set to kick off on February 21 in Australia and the extravagant fortnight affair will conclude with a final being played on the Women's Day, that is March 8 at the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG).

The 10 teams participating the World T20 are divided into two groups; Group A and Group B. Australia, India, New Zealand, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh constitute Group A, whereas England, Pakistan, South Africa, West Indies and Thailand will lock horns against each other in Group B. 10 warm-up games will be played between February 15 and Februray 20.

On January 12, BCCI announced the squad that will travel Down Under to play the World T20. Under the able leadership of Harmanpreet Kaur, the young Indian team, with an average age of just 23 years will look to make the most of the opportunity at hand.

The 15-member squad for Women’s ICC World T20 is as follows: Harmanpreet Kaur (captain), Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Verma, Jemimah Rodriguez, Harleen Deol, Deepti Sharma, Veda Krishnamurthy, Richa Ghosh, Tania Bhatia, Poonam Yadav, Radha Yadav, Rajeshwari Gaikwad, Shikha Pandey, Pooja Vastrakar, Arundhati Reddy.

Compared to the last T20 World Cup that was played in 2018 in West Indies, the team looks more or less the same, with only two new faces; Harleen Deol and Richa Ghosh making their way into the Indian World T20 outfit.

With Mithali Raj and Jhulan Goswami hanging their boots from the T20I, a lot will depend on the likes of Smriti Mandhana and Shikha Pandey, if India has to sail through the knock-out stages.

Looking at the last seven T20 World Cups, India had a topsy-turvy ride. While the Women in Blue made it to the semi-finals 3 (2009, 2010, 2018) out of 6 times, in the remaining 3, they were sent packing in the league stages. India would look to repeat what they did in 2017 in the 50-over World Cup, when they broke the shackles and marched on to set a date with the hosts England in the finals at Lord's. 

Source: BCCI Women Twitter Handle