India set to light up ICC Women’s T20 World Cup

All-rounder Harmanpreet Kaur will lead a strong 15-member group for the upcoming ICC Women's T20 World Cup, taking place in the UAE in October.

The Women in Blue, who reached the semi-finals in the previous edition, are placed in Group A of the competition along with Australia, New Zealand, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.

Harmanpreet will be assisted by vice-captain Smriti Mandhana, who is expected to open the batting with Shafali Verma. Apart from them, Jemimah Rodrigues, Deepti Sharma, and Richa Ghosh will boost a formidable batting line-up.

India are carrying a fair share of all-rounders in Harmanpreet, Sajana, Sobhana and Deepti.

We look at some of the players to watch and who we can expect to star when India arrive at Edgbaston next summer for a Women’s IT20 on Saturday 12 July. For the chance to get tickets at some of the best prices, enter the Ballot.

Harmanpreet Kaur

Captain Harmanpreet Kaur is regarded as one of the best players in the world. When you think of the some of the most pivotal moments in Indian Women’s cricket, she will most likely be involved.

Harmanpreet cherishes her memories of England, where she debuted in international T20 cricket at Taunton in June 2009, she then became the first Indian cricketer to sign for the Kia Super League back in 2017. She has since become a globally recognized cricketer with an international career stat list that speaks for itself. Amassing over 3,000 runs and 32 wickets in international T20 matches, including her show stopping innings against Australia, scoring 46 runs from 31 balls, which clinched the win in India’s highest-ever run chase.

In 2019, Kaur became the first Indian cricketer to surpass 100 international T20 appearances for her country, demonstrating the impact she has had on the game. The allrounder will be looking to lead India to a more successful World Cup after being knocked out in the semi-finals by Australia.

Smriti Mandhana

One of the most consistent opening batters across the game, Mandhana strikes fear into any bowling attack. After making her debut at just 17 years old, Smriti became the most expensive female cricketer during the inaugural season of the Women’s Premier League.

After breaking ceiling after ceiling, she is now one of the first names on the list of coaches all over the world for tournaments. No stranger to the English conditions, Mandhana has featured 29 times for Southern Brave across all four editions of The Hundred. This will put her in pretty good stead leading into the 2025 series.

Boasting an impressive strike rate of 122.51 in the international short format, her classy style of batting will be required by the Indian team if they are to challenge reigning champions, Australia in the UAE.

Deepti Sharma

Ranked third in the ICC IT20 allrounder list, Deepti Sharma has become a mainstay for India over the last few years with both bat and ball. Her performances in the most recent World Cup in South Africa saw the 27 year old named in the ICC Team of the Year in 2023.

After switching her bowling style part way through her career, Sharma became the first Indian cricketer to take 100 IT20 wickets back in 2018 and has since gone from strength to strength in tournaments across the world. Most recently the allrounder was part of the successful London Spirit side that lifted The Hundred trophy in front of a packed house at Lord’s, where she picked up the wicket of Georgia Elwiss.

She will be looking to continue her form into the upcoming World Cup in a few months’ time to try and help the Women in Blue take home the coveted trophy back to India.

Shafali Verma 

The history books of Indian cricket will be full of the name Shafali Verma after she became the youngest cricketer to pull on the India shirt in international T20 cricket. This marked the beginning of many milestones in Verma’s career.

In June 2021, she became the youngest player, male or female, to debut for India in all formats of international cricket, displaying the class the opening batter possess despite her young age.

She will be a force to be reckoned with in the UAE, with a strike rate of 130.56 and a best score of 81. The right hander will be looking to add more runs to her already impressive career total of 1948, which also saw her become the youngest international player to surpass 1000 runs in international T20 cricket.

Full India 2024 World Cup squad

Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Smriti Mandhana (vc), Shafali Verma, Deepti Sharma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Richa Ghosh (wk), Yastika Bhatia* (wk), Pooja Vastrakar, Arundhati Reddy, Renuka Singh Thakur, Dayalan Hemalatha, Asha Sobhana, Radha Yadav, Shreyanka Patil*, Sajana Sajeevan

England v India: Head-to-head

The two teams will go head-to-head next summer in a five game IT20 series before turning to ODIs. Edgbaston will host India Women for the first time in the fifth game of the series, which could prove to be a decider. The two teams sit next to each other in the ICC rankings, with England just above the Women in Blue in 2nd place.

The last time India visited England back in 2022 it wasn’t without a bit of drama. A tour that consisted of an IT20 and ODI series bought record crowds across the series’ with the highest attendance number coming at Lord’s for the final ODI.

England were successful in the IT20 series taking it 2-1, while India completed the clean sheet in the ODIs, which saw one of the greats of the game, Jhulan Goswami retire from international cricket.

However, it was Deepti Sharma’s non-strikers end run out that stole the limelight and left a sour taste in the English mouths.