The long-awaited Women’s T20 Challenge is scheduled to witness top Indian cricketers join forces with the biggest names from England, South Africa, Sri Lanka, West Indies, Bangladesh and New Zealand in the four-match tournament that will kick off in the Emirates. United Arab. from November 4 to 9. The tournament, which will be broadcast live and exclusively on Star Sports Network and Disney + Hotstar, will mark the beginning of the Indian women’s cricket season following a Covid-19-induced hiatus, with viewers and fans guaranteed for electrifying action. in Sharjah – host of all matches. The Supernovae led by Harmanpreet Kaur, the defending champions, will face Velocity, led by veteran Mithali Raj, in the opening of the three-team tournament.
The tournament has provided the right platform for the budding talents of women’s cricket to display their skills on the biggest stage of all. Supernovas’ Jemimah Rodrigues, who won the 2019 ‘Player of the Series’ title, is testament to how the tournament enables young people to learn and interact with some of the best in the world.
TOP 5 INDIAN PLAYERS TO WATCH OUT
Mithali Raj (speed)
India’s top cricketer Mithali Raj returns to the field as the captain of Velocity in the 2020 Women’s T20 Challenge. The 37-year-old legend last appeared in a T20 international in March 2019. In her 89 T20 matches, Mithali has scored 2,364 runs with an average of 37.52 and a high score of 97 runs to accompany his exquisite resume. With this in mind, he is expected to lead from the front when Velocity comes out to face Supernovas in the first tournament on November 4.
Shafali Verma (Speed)
Entering as one of the most exciting players in the tournament, Shafali Verma is expected to do all the heavy lifting for Velocity. The 16-year-old superstar is the youngest woman to play for India in T20I. The opposition will be cautious regarding Shafali’s form after she was declared the world’s number one hitter in the ICC T20I Ranking of Female Players published in March this year. Verma showed her mettle at the 2020 T20 Women’s World Cup when she emerged as the fifth-highest run scorer in the tournament and the player with the highest number of six. With such great potential, we could expect a similar demonstration in Sharjah.
Jemimah Rodrigues (Supernovae)
Jemi, as her teammates often call her, has turned out to be the most explosive player on the Indian women’s cricket team. The talented 20-year-old cricketer from Mumbai was named the series player and the player with the most runs during the 2019 Women’s T20 Challenge. She turned heads at the 2020 Women’s T20 World Cup, scoring 85 runs in the tournament . with a hit rate of 88.54. Jemimah will be an important cog at the wheel of the Supernovae, who are seeking a third consecutive title.
Harmanpreet Kaur (Supernovae)
Harmanpreet Kaur has been the most successful player of the tournament and this time, she returns eager to bag her third title. The seasoned off-roader’s career has been decorated with record-breaking records. She was the first woman to score a century in a women’s T20I, and was the first Indian player (male and female) to play 100 T20I matches. Although her performance at the T20 Women’s World Cup was a bit disappointing, the captain is ready to change that and stroll around Sharjah Cricket Stadium with renewed energy and fervor.
Smriti Mandhana (pioneers)
The youngest captain of the Women’s T20 Challenge, Smriti Mandhana, will be eager to avenge her team by showing last year. The Trailblazers captain did not have a good start to the year as she underperformed in the 2020 T20 Women’s World Cup with just 49 runs in 4 innings. The graceful left-handed hitter is expected to regain her lost form and improve her hitting, which will keep the Trailblazers in good stead in the tournament.
TOP 5 FOREIGN PLAYERS TO WATCH OUT
Chamari Atapattu (Supernovae)
The current captain of the Sri Lanka T20 international women’s team, Chamari Atapattu, is ready to turn heads in the upcoming Women’s T20 Challenge. With a strike rate of 135.08, Chamari became the sixth career leading scorer at the 2020 T20 Women’s World Cup and will be eager to replicate her performance for the Supernovae in her bid to defend the title. The 30-year-old hitter, who has scored 1,646 runs in 85 T20I, has the potential to exploit the favorable batting conditions in Sharjah. Their great experience will also be useful for decision-making processes on the playing field.
Sophie Ecclestone (Pioneers)
The stakes are high for the pioneers of Smriti Mandhana, as the world’s number one bowler in women’s T20 cricket joins the team for her 2020 campaign. The 21-year-old English spinner delivered the best performance of her career in the T20 Women’s World Cup with a stingy economy rate of 3.23 at the expense of just 15.1 overs. Considering that all the matches will take place in Sharjah, Sophie will play a key role in the Trailblazers preventing the opposition from scoring high.
Deandra Dottin (pioneers)
Looking at the dimensions of Sharjah’s cricket stadium, Deandra Dottin will be eager to send the cricket ball out of the park. The West Indies all-rounder, the first cricketer to reach 100 sixes in WT20I, enters the fray with great confidence, especially after moving five places to reach 15th position in the latest recently announced Women’s T20I Rankings. With his brute strength, Dottin could prove to be the backbone of the lower order of the team.
Danielle Wyatt (Speed)
Danielle Wyatt brings the necessary experience Velocity needs from Mithali Raj. Throughout her career, the English all-rounder has been impressive with both bat and ball, but she has faced some problems in recent tournaments. At the T20 Women’s World Cup, Wyatt scored 42 runs in four innings, with an average of 11.75 and a hit rate of 102.17. The Women’s T20 Challenge will be an opportunity for her to renew herself and show the power she possesses.
Natthakan Chantham (Pioneers)
Making her debut in the Women’s T20 Challenge is the first Thai cricketer: Natthakan Chantham. The cricketer has turned heads and put Thailand on the world cricket map. She became the first female cricketer to register for half a century at her country’s T20 World Cup. Chantham has been impressive with the bat, racking up 103 runs in just four innings with a strike rate of 83.73 and an average of 25.75. With their addition, the Trailblazers have surely beefed up their batting contingent!
Squads:
Supernovae: Harmanpreet Kaur (C), Jemimah Rodrigues (VC), Chamari Atapattu, Priya Punia, Anuja Patil, Radha Yadav, Taniya Bhatia (WK), Shashikala Siriwardene, Poonam Yadav, Shakera Selman, Arundhati Reddy, Pooja Vastrakar, Aundhati Khaki, Poojaga Vastrakar Muskan malik
Pioneers: Smriti Mandhana (C), Deepti Sharma (VC), Punam Raut, Richa Ghosh, D. Hemalatha, Nuzhat Parween (WK), Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Harleen Deol, Jhulan Goswami, Nathan Dil Bahadur, Salma Khatun, Sophhamthaie Ecclestone Chanthamtone, Deandra Dottin, Kashvee Gautam
Speed: Mithali Raj (C), Veda Krishnamurthy (VC), Shafali Verma, Sushma Verma (WK), Ekta Bisht, Mansi Joshi, Shikha Pandey, Devika Vaidya, Sushree Dibyadarshini, Manali Dakshini, Leigh Kasperek, Danielle Lu Wylam, Jahanahana , M. Anagha
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