Team India reached Sri Lanka on Wednesday ahead of the Women's Asia Cup, which starts from Friday onwards. The defending champions, India will kickstart their journey towards a record-extending eighth Asia Cup title when they meet arch-rivals Pakistan at Dambulla on Friday. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) posted a video of the team-members, including Jemimah Rodrigues, Shafali Varma, Renuka Singh, Shreyanka Patil and skipper Harmanpreet Kaur, showing the fun and banter they had throughout their flight from Chennai to Dambulla.
“A journey filled with smiles and banter from Chennai to Dambulla! All set for #WomensAsiaCup2024 #TeamIndia | #ACC,” tweeted BCCI Women.
A journey filled with smiles and banter from Chennai to Dambulla! ??
All set for #WomensAsiaCup2024#TeamIndia | #ACC pic.twitter.com/FGl3HVCNbW
— BCCI Women (@BCCIWomen) July 17, 2024
The 15-match tournament features full-member teams from Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka and will be joined by Malaysia, the UAE, Thailand, and Nepal.
Pakistan and India are placed in Group A along with Nepal and the UAE, while Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Thailand, and Malaysia are in Group B. The top two teams from each group will play in the semi-finals on July 26.
The final is set to be played on July 28 in Dambulla.
Leading up to the Women's Asia Cup, Team India has enjoyed a lot of on-field sucess, like beating South Africa 3-0 in the ODI series and one-off Test recently in June-July and drawing the three-match T20I series 1-1, with one game washed out due to rain.
Before that, India had a successful tour of Bangladesh, beating them 5-0 in T20Is from April-May.
Between December last year and January, India also hosted Australia for a one-off Test, three ODIs and T20Is each, winning the Test match, but losing the ODI series 0-3 and the T20I series 1-2.
All of these series/tournaments will be crucial for India's preparations for the ICC Women's T20 World Cup being held this year from October 3-20 in Bangladesh, where India will be aiming for its first-ever major ICC women's trophy.
India's Women's Asia Cup squad: India: Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Smriti Mandhana (vc), Shafali Verma, Deepti Sharma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Richa Ghosh (wk), Uma Chetry (wk), Pooja Vastrakar, Arundhati Reddy, Renuka Singh Thakur, Dayalan Hemalatha, Asha Sobhana, Radha Yadav, Shreyanka Patil, Sajana Sajeevan. Traveling reserves: Shweta Sehrawat, Saika Ishaque, Tanuja Kanwer, Meghna Singh.
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