New Delhi: Prolific opener Smriti Mandhana was on Monday named captain of the Indian women’s cricket team for this month’s three-match home ODI series against Ireland after regular skipper Harmanpreet Kaur was rested.
Also given a break was pacer Renuka Singh Thakur, the BCCI announced in a press release.
The short series against Ireland will begin on January 10 at Rajkot and all three games will be played at the same venue.
Harmanpreet had injured her knee during the home series against the West Indies last month, forcing her to sit out of the last two T20Is before returning to play three ODIs.
Before that, the 35-year-old had sustained a neck injury during the match against Pakistan in the Women’s T20 World Cup in October last year.
Lead pacer Renuka was the player of the series in the ODIs against the West Indies after taking 10 wickets from three matches.
In the past, a stress fracture of the back had troubled her. The move to rest her for the series against Ireland could be to ease her workload.
The Indian women’s team will enter the games against Ireland on a high after recording its first home T20 International series triumph in five years by beating the West Indies 2-1 last month.
It then went on to blank the travelling side 3-0 in the ODIs that followed. The 28-year-old Mandhana was in scintillating form during the assignment, notching up three consecutive half centuries in the T20 Internationals. She also scored two fifties during the ODIs.
India squad:
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Smriti Mandhana (C), Deepti Sharma (VC), Pratika Rawal, Harleen Deol, Jemimah Rodrigues, Uma Chetry (wk), Richa Ghosh (wk), Tejal Hasabnis, Raghvi Bist, Minnu Mani, Priya Mishra, Tanuja Kanwer, Titas Sadhu, Saima Thakor, Sayali Satghare.
Schedule (All matches in Rajkot, starts at 11 AM)
1st ODI: January 10
2nd ODI: January 12
3rd ODI: January 15.
