Ishaque, Patil, Kashyap, Sadhu get maiden ODI call-ups for Australia series

Saika Ishaque, Shreyanka Patil, Mannat Kashyap and Titas Sadhu have received their maiden ODI call-ups for the Australia series starting December 28 in Mumbai. Renuka Singh and Richa Ghosh also returned to the ODI set-up after missing the Bangladesh tour in July; Renuka was injured then and Ghosh had been dropped for Uma Chetry, who has now been left out without getting a game.

For the three T20Is against Australia early next month, India named an unchanged squad from the one that lost 2-1 to England at home earlier this month.

The changes in the ODI squad were mainly for the bowling attack and the allrounders as Priya Punia, Devika Vaidya, Anjali Sarvani, B Anusha, Meghna Singh, Rashi Kanojiya and Monica Patel were left out.

Offspin-bowling allrounder Patil was among RCB’s top performers in the inaugural WPL earlier this year and also became the first Indian to feature in the Women’s CPL. She was also part of the India A squad for the T20 series against England A before the T20Is against England, where she made her India debut and took five wickets in three matches.

Left-arm spinner Ishaque was another breakout star of the WPL, for champions Mumbai Indians, being the joint third-highest wicket-taker of the tournament. She, too, made her T20I debut during the England series and picked up five wickets in three games. She was also part of the Test squads against England and Australia but didn’t get a game.

Seamer Sadhu has played four T20Is so far – three in the Asian Games and one against England – whereas left-arm-spin allrounder Kashyap is yet to play for India.

India are on a high after registering back-to-back Test wins over England – their first against them at home – and Australia – the first, anywhere – and will now shift to the shorter formats, with regulars like captain Harmanpreet Kaur, Smriti Mandhana, Deepti Sharma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Sneh Rana, Pooja Vastrakar and others in both squads.

They will face Australia in three ODIs, on December 28, December 30 and January 2 (all at Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium), before the three T20Is will be played in Navi Mumbai on January 5, 7 and 9.

India squad for ODIs against Australia

Harmanpreet Kaur (capt), Smriti Mandhana (vice-capt), Jemimah Rodrigues, Shafali Verma, Deepti Sharma, Yastika Bhatia (wk), Richa Ghosh (wk), Amanjot Kaur, Shreyanka Patil, Mannat Kashyap, Saika Ishaque, Renuka Singh, Titas Sadhu, Pooja Vastrakar, Sneh Rana, Harleen Deol