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The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Monday named a 16-member squad for the upcoming Birmingham Commonwealth Games. Harmanpreet Kaur was named the captain of the side while Smriti Mandhana was named Kaur’s deputy. The Indian cricket board also added three standby players to the squad.
Notably, this will be the first time that Women’s T20 International will be featured in the prestigious multi-sport event. India is in Group A with Australia, Barbados, and Pakistan. Sri Lanka, England, New Zealand, and South Africa are placed in Group B. India is scheduled to play three games in the league stage of the tournament starting 29th July 2022.
The Women in Blue will open their campaign at the prestigious event against Australia at Edgbaston on 29 July. They will then face arch-rivals Pakistan two days later i.e. 31 July at the same venue. India's final group fixture will be against Barbados on 3 August which will also be played at the same venue.
Team India squad: Harmanpreet Kaur (C), Smriti Mandhana (VC), Shafali Verma, S. Meghana, Taniyaa Sapna Bhatia (Wk), Yastika Bhatia (Wk), Deepti Sharma, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Pooja Vastrakar, Meghna Singh, Renuka Thakur, Jemimah Rodrigues, Radha Yadav, Harleen Deol, Sneh Rana.
Standby: Simran Dil Bahadur, Richa Ghosh, Poonam Yadav.
While India, Pakistan, Australia, and Barbados form Group A, England, New Zealand, South Africa, and Sri Lanka form Group B. The first group match of Group B will be played between New Zealand and South Africa while the second match will be played between England and Sri Lanka on 30 August.
After the group stage games are done, the top two teams from the respective pools will progress to the semi-finals. Both the semifinal matches will be played on 6 August. Meanwhile, the final match for the gold medal will be played on 7 August. The Bronze medal match between the runners-up of the two semifinals will also be played on 7 August.