Women’s T20 Challenge:- In a bid to add strength in popularizing Women’s cricket, BCCI has organized Women’s T20 challenge, comprising of three teams, namely, Supernovas, Trailblazers, and Velocity.
Though, the initiative actually started in 2018 where only a single match was organized at Mumbai during IPL 2018. Not much people had turned up then owing to very unusual timings (2 p.m- 5 p.m.). However, this time around, it’s even bigger with the right timings in place.
Indian women’s cricket stalwarts Mithali Raj, Harmanpreet Kaur, and Smriti Mandhana will lead their respective teams, namely, Velocity, Supernovas, and Trailblazers and the matches are likely to begin at 7:30 pm.
Apart from the International players, the league is certainly going to help some domestic players who will get to share the dressing rooms with some of the big names in Women’s cricket.
Players from various countries like England, New Zealand, West Indies, and Sri Lanka will also be seen hitting the ground running along with Indian talents. Amongst the big names from the above-mentioned countries are Danielle Wyatt (England), Amelia Kerr (New Zealand), Stafanie Taylor (West Indies), Chamari Athapaththu (Sri Lanka) and Jahanara Alam (Bangladesh).
“We need to understand that to start something different, we had to start small. Last year we had just one game and this year they have added one more team and it’s a one-leg tournament. Maybe by next year or so we might have a full-fledged league,” Mithali Raj ahead of the event.
“Currently, it is like testing waters as we need to see how people reciprocate and how the teams do. So it’s also important for us to perform well so that we can grab eyeballs and attract more people to watch our matches,” Raj opined. “So that will probably encourage the BCCI or the franchises to come forward to start a proper league.” She added.
The Australian players, though, are likely to miss the league owing to some brawls between both the boards of both India and Australia. Sadly, Australian mainstays with the likes of Meg Lanning, Ellyse Perry aren’t going to be a part of the league.
All the three teams will face against one another between 6th May to 9th May, before the first and second placed team will square up in the final on 11 May 2019.
Here’s a look at the squads of all the three teams:
Supernovas: Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Anuja Patil, Arundhati Reddy, Chamari Athapaththu (Sri Lanka), Jemimah Rodrigues, Lea Tahuhu (New Zealand), Mansi Joshi, Natalie Sciver (England), Poonam Yadav, Priya Punia, Radha Yadav, Sophie Devine (New Zealand), Taniya Bhatia (wk). Coach: W. V. Raman
Trailblazers: Smriti Mandhana (c), Bharti Fulmali, Dayalan Hemalatha, Deepti Sharma, Harleen Deol, Jasia Akhtar, Jhulan Goswami, R. Kalpana (wk), Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Shakera Selman (West Indies), Sophie Ecclestone (England), Stafanie Taylor (West Indies), Suzie Bates (New Zealand). Coach: Biju George.
Velocity: Mithali Raj (c), Amelia Kerr (New Zealand), Danielle Wyatt (England), Devika Vaidya, Ekta Bisht, Hayley Matthews (West Indies), Jahanara Alam (Bangladesh), Komal Zhanzad, Shefali Verma, Shikha Pandey, Sushma Verma (wk), Sushree Priyadarshini, Veda Krishnamurthy. Coach: Mamatha Maben.
The Schedule
May 6: Supernovas vs Trailblazers
May 8: Trailblazers vs Velocity
May 9: Supernovas vs Velocity
May 11 (Final) — First-Placed Team vs Second-Placed Team.
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