Shafali, Richa to be available for entire India vs Australia WT20I series

With the series evenly poised and both Shafali and Richa in fine form, both players will only be available for the India U-19 camp after the WT20I series gets over on December 20.

Shjafali Verma celebrates her half-century against Australia during the third T20I at the Cricket Club of India in Mumbai. | Photo Credit: PTI

Before India’s Women’s T20I series against Australia got underway last week, India captain Harmanpreet Kaur had stated that Shafali Verma and Richa Ghosh will not be available for the entire series as they will have to join the Indian camp in Bengaluru for the inaugural edition of the U-19 World Cup.

But it seems there has been a change in plan. Harmanpreet clarified on Wednesday evening that “they will now play the whole series and then join the camp.”

With the series evenly poised and both Shafali and Richa in fine form, the U-19 coaching group has been informed that Shafali and Richa will now only be available for the camp after the WT20I series gets over in Mumbai on December 20. The U-19 camp begins in Bengaluru on December 18 under the watchful eyes of coach Nooshin Al Khadeer and now, both Richa and Shafali are expected to join the camp on December 21.

The thought behind the change in the plan seems to be the fact that playing against top-ranked Australia will give the players a lot of confidence and at a time when India’s top-order batting is revolving around Shafali and Richa is shaping up as a good finisher, the team management clearly does not want to let go of their services at a crucial juncture in the series.

Even Richa does not want to think much about the U-19 T20 World Cup yet and wants to focus on the ongoing series against Australia for now. “We are only thinking about this series for now. Once we join the U-19 camp, we will focus on those things. It won’t be a problem to get used to that set-up because both Shafali and I have known them for a while,” she said.

When the inaugural edition of the U-19 World Cup begins in South Africa, Shafali will lead India, while Shweta Sehrawat will be her deputy.

Nooshin to coach India U-19 for World Cup

Nooshin Al Khadeer has been formally appointed as the coach of India’s U-19 women’s team for the upcoming World Cup and the South Africa series. A former India international, Nooshin was working with the Indian U-19 team on a ‘series to series’ basis, and in her guidance, the team had a clean sweep in the five-match T20I series against New Zealand U-19 earlier this month.