Fulmali and Shreyanka get the nod for T20i side for Australia while Harleen Deol has been left out of T20I squad.
For the February tour of Australia, batsman Bharti Fulmali and offspinner Shreyanka Patil have joined the India T20I team for the first time since 2019. Both left-arm spinner Vaishnavi Sharma and seventeen-year-old wicketkeeper G Kamalini, who were on the T20I team that played Sri Lanka in December of last year, have received their first ODI call-ups.
India removed left-arm spinner Radha Yadav, who had just lost her spot in the T20I team, and backup wicketkeeper Uma Chetry from the winning ODI World Cup roster. Arundhati Reddy, a pacer, has been kept for T20Is but is not included in the ODI squad.
Harleen Deol, a member of the ODI lineup, has been removed from the T20I squad, while Kashvee Gautam, who last played for India in the tri-series against South Africa and Sri Lanka in May of last year, has been added to the ODI squad. The squads will be led by Harmanpreet Kaur, and there are no major surprises.
Fulmali’s remarkable exploits in the current WPL, where she scored 92 runs in four innings at a strike rate of 191.66 for Gujarat Giants, preceded her return to international cricket. She also had a great season last year, scoring 133 runs in four innings at a strike rate of 172.72, which was a significant improvement from the first WPL season in 2023.
This will be Patil’s first international match since she played Australia in the T20 World Cup in October 2024. She played competitive cricket in the Women’s Caribbean Premier League (WCPL) in September of last year after missing almost a year due to injuries. She was a member of the Barbados Royals, who won the championship. Patil has claimed eight wickets in four games this WPL, including five against Giants.
During the white-ball trip, India will play three Twenty20 Internationals (T20Is) and as many One-Day Internationals (ODIs) from February 15 to March 1. The one-off Test is set to take place in Perth from March 6 to 9. The Test team will be revealed later, according to a statement from the BCCI.