Women's T20 Challenge: BCCI announces Trailblazers and Supernovas teams

Mumbai: The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced both the teams for the upcoming Women's T20 Challenge match to be played ahead of the IPL Qualifier 1 at the Wankhede Stadium here.

Indian cricketers Smriti Mandhana and Harmanpreet Kaur will be leading IPL Trailblazers and IPL Supernovas in this game. The one-of-its-kind match will feature 26 players including 10 international stars from Australia, England and New Zealand.

Australia's captain Meg Lanning has recovered from her injury and will be a part of the Harmanpreet Kaur-led IPL Supernovas which also includes Indian star Mithali Raj.

Attacking batswoman and India's T20 vice captain Smriti Mandhana will lead IPL Trailblazers which includes pacer Jhulan Goswami, Suzie Bates and many popular international women cricketers.

Diana Edulji, member of Committee of Administrators (CoA) and former India captain, said, "We are excited to announce the first-of-its-kind exhibition match involving our women cricketers. BCCI has been pulling out all stops to promote and nurture women's cricket and this is a small yet significant step towards a prospective league involving women's stars in the future."

"The IPL is the biggest and most popular league in the world and it has been a long-time endeavour to have a women's league that can match the exuberance of IPL. Mithali Raj, Jhulan Goswami, Harmanpreet Kaur, Smriti Mandhana and Veda Krishanmurthy among others rubbing shoulders with foreign stars will be a unique experience and something that we have not witnessed here in India.

The T20 match will begin at 14:00 IST and will be followed by the IPL 2018 Qualifier 1 at 19:00 IST.

Squads:

IPL Trailblazers: Alyssa Healy (wk), Smriti Mandhana (c), Suzie Bates, Deepti Sharma, Beth Mooney, Jemimah Rodrigues, Danielle Hazell, Shikha Pandey, Lea Tahuhu, Jhulan Goswami, Ekta Bisht, Poonam Yadav, Dayalan Hemalatha

IPL Supernovas: Danielle Wyatt, Mithali Raj, Meg Lanning, Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Sophie Devine, Ellyse Perry, Veda Krishnamurthy, Mona Meshram, Pooja Vastrakar, Megan Schutt, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Anuja Patil, Taniya Bhatia (wk)

(With agency inputs)

Photo: Cricketnmore