India's women's squads for England tour: Shafali Verma makes a comeback in T20Is, Sayali Satghare returns in both formats
With still more than a month left for the matches, India announced their white-ball squads on Thursday for the women's T20I and ODI series in England, starting at the end of June 2025. While the One Day International squad is largely similar to the one that won the Women's Tri-Nation Series recently in Sri Lanka, opener Shafali Verma makes a comeback to the T20 International scheme of things, after having been out of reckoning in the recent months.
In the ODI squad – potentially a crucial indicator of the team's plans ahead of the home World Cup starting at the end of September – Mumbai's seam-bowling allrounder Sayali Satghare makes a return too. She replaces Kashvee Gautam, who made her debut in the Tri-Series but got injured midway and was replaced by Kranti Gaud. The latter, who also made her debut in Sri Lanka, retains her place in both squads.
Harmanpreet Kaur's side were clinical in the series against South Africa and Sri Lanka, suffering a solitary surprise defeat against Sri Lanka in the round-robin phase but otherwise dominant on their way to lifting the trophy. During the series, India handed out as many as four caps—to pacers Kashvee and Kranti, and left-arm spinners Sree Charani and Shuchi Upadhyay. Along with Kranti, the two spinners have retained their ODI spots too and earned their T20I call-ups as well.
In the T20Is canvas, Shafali's return is the headliner. The swashbuckling opener was dropped last November after an inconsistent run in India colours, but has since been in stellar form in domestic cricket and had another solid season with the Delhi Capitals in the Women's Premier League. 'It's not easy to get over (being overlooked for selection). I didn't want to reveal because my father had a heart attack about two days before I got dropped from the team. I hid the news from him till he got better. He was in the hospital. I told him a week later,' Shafali had told The Indian Express in an interview.
While India's batting largely worked well as a unit in Sri Lanka, there was a school of thought that someone with Shafali's intent could shake things up in an otherwise homogenous top order. But it seems her return to the ODI scheme of things will have to wait.
The bigger question however, is the status of injured players before the World Cup. In the press release for the Tri-Series it was mentioned that Renuka Singh Thakur and Titas Sadhu were injured and were not considered for the selection. Renuka, especially, has been India's strike bowler in recent times and has a good record in England. Then there are the curious cases of Shreyanka Patil and Asha Sobhana, both ruled out before RCB's WPL season, but still not back in the reckoning for India.
Harmanpreet Kaur (C), Smriti Mandhana (VC), Shafali Verma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Richa Ghosh (WK), Yastika Bhatia (WK), Harleen Deol, Deepti Sharma, Sneh Rana, Sree Charani, Shuchi Upadhyay, Amanjot Kaur, Arundhati Reddy, Kranti Gaud, Sayali Satghare
India's ODI Squad: Harmanpreet Kaur (C), Smriti Mandhana (VC), Pratika Rawal, Harleen Deol, Jemimah Rodrigues, Richa Ghosh (WK), Yastika Bhatia (WK), Tejal Hasabnis, Deepti Sharma, Sneh Rana, Sree Charani, Shuchi Upadhyay, Amanjot Kaur, Arundhati Reddy, Kranti Gaud, Sayali Satghare
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