BCCI on Thursday (January 6) announced a 15-member squad for the ICC Women's ODI World Cup 2022. The team, led by Mithali Raj, didn't feature star batter Jemimah Rodrigues, Punam Raut, and Shikha Pandey which came as a surprise.
Punam and Shikha reacted to the exclusion from the World Cup squad on Twitter. They were disappointed and heartbroken about missing out from the mega ICC event, scheduled to be played in New Zealand from March 4 to April 3.
"Having been considered amongst the experienced batsmen and a consistent run-scorer for India, I’m extremely disappointed at not being a part of the World Cup squad. In 2021, I averaged 73.75, scoring 295 runs, which included a hundred and two half-centuries in the six ODI games that I played.
"It is very disheartening to be continuously left out even after performing. Having said that, I would like to extend my best wishes to all the players who will be representing India,” Punam wrote on Twitter.
Shikha posted a tweet with a heartbroken emoji, along with a blog where she narrated how important cricket is in her life. "Cricket has been such a big part of my life… Sorry, my entire family‘s life. Studying for exams with the cricket commentary in the background was just a normal thing for me growing up.
"I would completely forget about learning phylum classification for my biology test the next day if I sat down and watched an over or two of a cricket match. I guess cricket always helped me get away from the present into a world faraway which was certainly very enjoyable (sic)," read a part of her blog.
Harmanpreet Kaur has been named the vice-captain of the squad which includes batter Smriti Mandhana, veteran pacer Jhulan Goswami and youngster Shafali Verma.
ICC Women's 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: Sabbhineni Meghana, Ekta Bisht, Simran Dil Bahadur.
