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The Women’s T20 challenge is all set to be held in May 2022. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) President Sourav Ganguly has confirmed that the competition will happen during the 2022 Indian Premier League (IPL) playoffs after it was cancelled last year as the Indian women's team was touring Australia for a Test, ODI and a T20I series during the IPL time.
It is being learned that the fixtures and the venues will be decided later. Since 2018, the BCCI has been organizing the competition during the men’s T20 playoffs.
"The Women’s T20 Challenge will again be back this year in May. Hopefully, in the future, we will be able to host a bigger women’s IPL. But this year, the Women’s T20 Challenge will surely happen during the IPL playoffs," Ganguly told Sportstar.
The BCCI President also confirmed that the Senior Women’s T20 League will resume soon. The tournament was scheduled to commence in February but had to be put on hold amid the COVID-19 surge in India. The knockout fixtures of the Cooch Behar Trophy were also postponed due to the COVID spread. The Indian women’s cricket team is currently in New Zealand for a limited-overs series.
"We have time for the Cooch Behar Trophy. Let this COVID settle down a bit, we can hold it because it is just at the knockout stage, and only a few matches are pending. We can do it in April-May. Similarly, with the Women's T20 League, we will do it as well. We are presuming that in another month, the number of cases will go down and we can host it," the former India captain added.
The Women’s T20 Challenge consists of three teams- Supernovas, Trailblazers, and Velocity. In 2020, the tournament was hosted at Sharjah. Even though some foreign players did not participate, the tournament ended successfully. Smriti Mandhana’s Trailblazers defeated Harmanpreet Kaur’s defending champions team Supernovas in the final to lift the cup for the first time.
Meanwhile, Ganguly also mentioned about upcoming India vs West Indies ODI and T20I series, the first ODI of which will be India's 1000th ODI. India is the first team to reach this milestone.