Smriti Mandhana to lead India in all three formats on December tour of South Africa
The BCCI has named Smriti Mandhana captain for the Test, ODIs and T20Is in South Africa, with Deepti Sharma and Shafali Verma as vice-captains. Here are the squads and the full schedule.
It is officially Smriti Mandhana's team now. The BCCI's women's selection committee has named separate squads for India's all-format tour of South Africa in December, and Mandhana will captain the side in all three – the one-off Test, three ODIs and three T20Is. Deepti Sharma is vice-captain for the Test and the ODIs, and Shafali Verma is vice-captain for the T20Is.
The seven-match tour runs through most of December, so it is the perfect reason to set an alarm for the winter evenings.
The schedule
- Only Test: from December 9, Gqeberha
- 1st ODI: December 16, Paarl
- 2nd ODI: December 19, Cape Town
- 3rd ODI: December 22, Bloemfontein
- 1st T20I: December 26, Benoni
- 2nd and 3rd T20Is: December 29 and 30, Potchefstroom
Who is in the squads
The Test and ODI squads have 15 players each and differ by one name: off-spinner Sneh Rana is in the Test squad, while Vaishnavi Sharma takes that spot in the ODI squad. The core is familiar – Mandhana, Deepti Sharma, Shafali Verma, Harmanpreet Kaur, Jemimah Rodrigues, wicketkeepers Richa Ghosh and Yastika Bhatia, and pacer Kranti Gaud.
The T20I squad is bigger, with 17 players, and brings in a fresher look. Niki Prasad, G. Kamalini, Anushka Sharma, Prema Rawat and Amanjot Kaur are all named, along with the seam pair of Renuka Singh Thakur and Arundhati Reddy. Harmanpreet Kaur, Jemimah Rodrigues and Richa Ghosh carry the experience in the middle order.
Why this tour matters
South Africa is one of the hardest places to tour, and December pitches in Gqeberha and Potchefstroom tend to reward pace and bounce. A Test in South Africa is also a rare thing for India's women, so the red-ball match will be a real measure of how far the Test side has come.
For Mandhana, it is a big step. Leading in all three formats on an away tour is the toughest captaincy test in the game, and having Harmanpreet Kaur in the dressing room as a senior batter gives her a valuable sounding board. The split vice-captaincy – Deepti for the longer formats and Shafali for T20Is – also points to the leadership group the selectors want to build.
The FHM take
This is the right call at the right time. Mandhana is India's most consistent batter and already the face of the team, and handing her all three formats removes any confusion about who runs the show. The T20I squad's young names are the bit we are most excited about – if even two of them make the most of December, India's next few years look very bright.
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