Top stars to feature in women's T20 challenge

Top international women cricketers — Suzie Bates, Ellyse Perry, Alyssa Healy, Megan Schutt and Beth Mooney — will play the women’s T20 challenge on May 22.

Ellyse Perry will play the exhibition match.

Top international women cricketers -- Suzie Bates, Sophie Devine, Ellyse Perry, Alyssa Healy, Megan Schutt and Beth Mooney—will play the women's T20 challenge, which will be hosted ahead of the first qualifier of the Indian Premier League (IPL) on May 22.

India internationals Smriti Mandhana and Harmanpreet Kaur will lead the two teams in a match that will showcase some of the most talented women cricketers. Sportstarhad reported about the development last week.

“Even as IPL continues to roll like a well-oiled machine, over the last couple of weeks, efforts were made to put in place a similar structure for women cricketers. We were in talks with several Boards and I am pleased with the outcome. This special game will be played at Mumbai’s iconic Wankhede Stadium and will be telecast live in India and across the world,” IPL chairman, Rajeev Shukla, said.

Diana Edulji, member of Committee of Administrators (CoA) and former India captain, said: “We are excited to announce the first-of-its-kind exhibition match involving our women cricketers. BCCI has been pulling out all stops to promote and nurture women’s cricket and this is a small yet significant step towards a prospective league involving women’s stars in the future. The IPL is the biggest and most popular league in the world and it has been a long-time endeavour to have a women’s league that can match the exuberance of IPL. Mithali Raj, Jhulan Goswami, Harmanpreet Kaur, Smriti Mandhana and Veda Krishanmurthy among others rubbing shoulders with foreign stars will be a unique experience and something that we have not witnessed here in India.”

This match will begin at 2pm and will be followed by the Qualifier 1 at 7pm.