India announce women's T20 team for Asian Games; Titas Sadhu, Kanika Ahuja among new faces

Teenaged fast-bowling all-rounder Titas Sadhu and lower-order batter Kanika Ahuja are among the new faces in India women’s T20 team, which will take part in the 19th Asian Games in Hangzhou, China.

Titas was the Player of the Match in the final of inaugural Women’s U19 T20 World Cup for her spell of 2/6 and was recently a member of the ACC Women’s Emerging Asia Cup winning team in Hong Kong.

On the other hand, Kanika was Titas' team-mate in Hong Kong and emerged as a lower-order batting option in some of her knocks for Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in the inaugural edition of Women’s Premier League (WPL).

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Left-arm spinner Rajeshwari Gayakwad returns to the side after missing the recent tour of Bangladesh, with Harleen Deol and Pooja Vastrakar moving to reserves.

As expected, the team will be led by Harmanpreet Kaur while Smriti Mandhana will be her deputy.

Notably, cricket will be one of the 37 sports to be played at the 2022 Asian Games. The sport was last played at the Asian Games in 2014.

This will be the first time India will be playing in the women’s T20 event. India had won the silver medal in the Women's T20 event when it was held for the first time in the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham last year.

The women’s cricket competition will take place from September 19-28 in a T20 format at the Zhejiang University of Technology Pingfeng Cricket Field.

India squad: Harmanpreet Kaur (C), Smriti Mandhana (VC), Shafali Verma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Deepti Sharma, Richa Ghosh (wk), Amanjot Kaur, Devika Vaidya, Anjali Sarvani, Titas Sadhu, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Minnu Mani, Kanika Ahuja, Uma Chetry (wk), Anusha Bareddy

Standby list of players: Harleen Deol, Kashvee Gautam, Sneh Rana, Saika Ishaque, Pooja Vastrakar