The inaugural Under-19 women’s cricket World Cup begins on Saturday and will be played in the T20 format across two South African cities: Benoni and Potchefstroom. One of the favoured sides to lift the title in the 16-team competition on January 29 are the India U-19s.
They are placed in Group D alongside the hosts, Scotland and UAE, and are coming off three victorious assignments in the three months leading into the world event. Sporting News gives you the lowdown on the squad that could go on to win the maiden women’s world title for India.
Shafali Verma (captain)
She entered cricket’s big-league as a 15-year-old and became the youngest to play women’s T20I cricket and the youngest Indian to make an international half-century. A little over three years on, Verma, a Commonwealth Games silver medallist capped 74 times across formats with India’s senior team, is leading the country at the first edition of the Under-19 Women’s T20 World Cup.
An explosive opener and the only player in the tournament two senior World Cup appearances under her belt, Verma will retain her opening role in the line-up. The 18- year-old heads into the world event with scores of 8-ball 10 and an unbeaten 50-ball 43 in the warm-ups against Australia U-19s and Bangladesh U-19s, respectively.
A handy offspinner, she led India U-19s’ win in the practice match against Australia U- 19s with a match-winning 3-8 in a 97-run successful defence. Expect Verma to deploy herself generously in the attack, in what’s likely to be a low-scoring tournament.
Shweta Sehrawat (vice-captain)
A top-order right-hand batter with an impressive captaincy record, 18-year-old Sehrawat will be Verma’s deputy at the World Cup. Last month, she led India U-19s during their victorious 5-0 home series against New Zealand Development Squad in Mumbai.
Her appointment in the role came on the back of her title-winning campaign with India U-19s A in the quadrangular series in Vizag in November that also featured India U-19s B, West Indies U-19s and Sri Lanka U-19s. In the final of that tournament, Sehrawat led from the front, stroking an unbeaten 30-ball 43, and finished atop the run chart, averaging nearly 55 from four innings.
Earlier that month, she was the captain of the India C side that finished runners-up in the 2022-23 U-19 Challenger Trophy in Goa. A month prior, she led Delhi U-19s to the semi-finals of the inter-state U-19 T20 Trophy. In the recently concluded five-match bilateral assignment against hosts South Africa U-19s, she took over the captaincy reins from Verma in the official third T20. In Verma’s absence, Sehrawat shepherded the side to a 60-run win.
Sehrawat looks up to India cricketers Virat Kohli, Smriti Mandhana and Jemimah Rodrigues, and has a List A hundred to her name.
Her ability to absorb pressure with the bat could hold India in good stead in the knockouts. She is a strong shout to finish among the top five run-getters in the tournament.
Richa Ghosh (wicketkeeper)
Few women in Indian cricket have ever brought as much explosivity to an XI, or excitement to the cricket-watching experience, as wicketkeeper-batter Ghosh. A strongly built player, Ghosh, 19 can make batting look ridiculously easy on most days.
She is one of the two senior internationals, alongside Verma, picked in the squad, and has played 47 limited-overs matches for India to date. She was part of the Indian side that finished runners-up at the 2020 T20 World Cup in Australia and, during its title clash, became the first-ever concussion substitute in a T20 World Cup final.
Many an exhibit of Ghosh’s big-hitting prowess was on show in last month’s home series against Australia. In India’s Super-Over win in the second T20I, her 13-ball 26 was critical to the hosts’ victory.
She plays her domestic cricket for Bengal, made her WBBL debut last season, for the Hobart Hurricanes, and is India’s first-choice wicketkeeper at the U-19 World Cup.
Soumya Tiwari
Much of how the India U-19s fare as a batting unit at the U-19 World Cup will rely on the stylish right-hand top-order batter Tiwari. She has been prolific in the lead-up to the tournament and is expected to open the batting with Verma.
The fourth-highest run-getter in the quadrangular series, where she was promoted to partner Sehrawat for title winners India U-19s A in the opening tandem after batting at No. 3 at the start of the tournament. Her highest-score, 65 not-out, in that competition came against the Sri Lanka U-19s.
Against New Zealand Development, she made 52*, 31, 16, 7 and 40, shouldering opening duties with Sehrawat in all but the fourth T20, where a run out cut short her innings at No. 3 to a single-digit score. She played in only three of the four completed matches against South Africa U-19s, making 40, 14 and 4*.
A part-time offspinner, Tiwari, who is now 17, made her Under-23 debut at 13, and broke into the senior Madhya Pradesh side earlier this year. The right-hand batter hails from the central Indian city of Bhopal and took up create at 11 years old as a recreational activity during her school’s summer recess.
Her elder sister takes active interest in her career and her father, Manish, played cricket at the local divisional level. She admires how Virat Kohli breaks chases down into smaller parts, no matter how daunting the target.
#TeamIndia clinch a comprehensive 5️⃣4️⃣-run win against SA U19 Women at the Steyn City Ground & take a 1️⃣-0️⃣ lead in the 5️⃣-match #SAvIND T20I series 👏🏻👏🏻
— BCCI Women (@BCCIWomen) December 27, 2022
4️⃣0️⃣ runs each with the bat from Shweta Sehrawat & Soumya Tiwari 👌🏻
3️⃣ wickets apiece for Shabnam Shakil & Archana Devi 🙌🏻 pic.twitter.com/5cjRF5TzPP
Hurley Gala
Skating was the first sporting love of the Mumbai-based 16-year-old right-arm pace- bowling allrounder. But an ankle injury around the age of 11 grounded her for months and prompted her to trade rollerblades for cricket gear. In Ivan Rodrigues, the father of Mumbai and India batter Jemimah, she found her first cricket coach who taught her the basics of the game.
Her natural athleticism and core strength impressed many on the local cricketing circuit. A rarity in women’s cricket in India, she appeared hardwired to bowl pace. As her understanding of her craft grew, her arsenal expanded. Now, a typical Gala over has everything from a stinging well-directed short ball to one that hurries the batter or beats them for pace.
With the bat, she props up the middle order and possess the smarts to score quick runs. A right-hander, she is especially quick between the wickets and can help close out an innings with her big shots.
In the series against the New Zealand Development side, she bagged three-fors in the first two matches of the assignment. Of the two warm-ups India U-19s played earlier this week, she featured in only one. She is likely to start for India U-19s at the World Cup and take the ball in the powerplay.
G Trisha
The 17-year-old batting allrounder trains at the same institution – St. John’s Cricket Academy -- as former India captain Mithali Raj, under former India men’s fielding coach, R Sridhar. Deemed a prodigy in her state-cricket circles for a long time now, Trisha, a resident of the southern Indian city, Secunderabad, has represented Hyderabad across all women’s age-groups and senior sides.
She started playing the sport as a two-year-old, thanks to her father GV Rami Reddy, a former U-16 national level hockey player who had pledged to himself and his wife before marriage he would make their child, no matter boy or girl, an India cricketer. He has remained a pivotal figure in her cricketing journey since. In 2013-14, he quit his job as a fitness trainer in his hometown Bhadrachalam and moved to Secunderabad to give Trisha better training opportunities.
Trisha bats and bowls right-handed and has majorly played in first-drop position in most of the series leading into the U-19 World Cup. Her bowling action, somewhat round- arm, can fox many, her legspin a potent secondary skill to go with her solid batting technique.
Mannat Kashyap
She has already made heads turn with her wily attempts at running out non-strikers backing up, a perfectly lawful mode of dismissal that (curiously) doesn’t sit well with many, including England batter Danni Wyatt.
Mannat doing Mannat things.
— Krithika (@krithika0808) December 27, 2022
(Mannat Kashyap did it against Izzy Gaze in the match against NZ Development team as well.)#CricketTwitter#SAU19vINDU19 pic.twitter.com/047VsFkvvU
A left-arm spinner from Punjab, Kashyap, 18, tried to effect such a run-out in the series against New Zealand Development as well as the South Africa U-19s. She is understood to have been inspired by India allrounder Deepti Sharma’s dismissal of England’s Charlie Dean at Lord’s last year and, before that, her Punjab team-mate Kanika Ahuja‘s successful execution of it in domestic cricket. Don’t be surprised if you see her have a go at it at the U-19 World Cup.
Something of a crisis bowler for the India U-19s, Kashyap is a street-smart spinner. She varies her pace with control and has a knack for giving breakthroughs. She was in sizzling form in the home series against New Zealand Development, picking up 11 wickets, including a five-for, and is the first-choice left-arm-spin-bowling option.
Among her role models, she counts India captain Harmanpreet Kaur, whom she’s known from close quarters, courtesy her cousin, Noopur Kashyap, a long-time friend of Harmanpreet’s who now manages the India star.
Titas Sadhu
The tall, broad-shouldered right-arm medium pacer from Bengal has followed in the footsteps of two pace-bowling allrounders from the eastern Indian state she considers her inspiration: Rumeli Dhar and Jhulan Goswami. Like them, Sadhu can double up as formidable force with the bat in any line-up, especially lower down the order.
She operates with the new ball and generates decent pace. Add to that her ability to move the ball in the air and she can be a handful on her day. In the warm-up against Bangladesh U-19s, she returned 4-0-28-0 and didn’t feature in the one against Australia U-19s.
Sadhu, 18, dabbled in swimming and athletics before trying out cricket. It was as a 12- year-old she first bowled with a tennis ball, at her father’s cricket academy in Chinsura, a small town in West Bengal. By 13, she had begun training in a formal set-up, but it wasn’t until three years later, she’d have her first brush with state-level domestic cricket. In the 2020-21 season, Sadhu made her debut in senior for Bengal and broke into the U-19 state team later in the year.
Among frontline allrounders, she admires Australia’s Ellyse Perry and England’s Ben Stokes. She loves reading during her downtime; Stephen Chbosky’s epistolary novel, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, is one of her favourite books.
Sonia Mendhiya
Pluck and spunk are the standout on-field attributes in this 18-year-old batting allrounder from Haryana. Not unlike the batter she loves watching most: India wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant.
The second player in the squad from Rohtak district after captain Verma, under whom she plays on the Haryana state teams as well, Mendhiya is the centerpiece of India U- 19s’ middle order.
The past 18 months have prepared her well for batting outside the opening position she typically slots in at for Haryana. She was prolific with the bat in the 2021-22 Under-19 One Day Trophy in that role, finishing as the leading run-getter in the tournament. In the Senior Women’s T20 Trophy the following season, she batted as low as Nos. 7 and 8.
Thanks to Verma, with whom she trains at Shri Ram Narain Cricket Club in Rohtak, Mendhiya, who has herself led the Haryana U-19 side, got several opportunities to play primarily as an offspinner last year. The movie paid off for Haryana and the Under-19s subsequently, with Mendhiya having evolved into quite the reliable breakthrough-giver with an astute cricketing mind.
She belongs to a financially underprivileged family and lost her father young. A part of her funding for cricket training in recent years has been sponsored by a Delhi-based NGO.
Shabnam MD
The most fearsome among India’s four-member pace contingent, right-armer Shabnam runs in quick, hits the deck hard, moves the ball off the pitch and can dart in a mean yorker, too. The 5ft 10’ quick from Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, is only 15 years old, yet generates good pace, upwards of 108kph at times, and can unnerve batters with her bouncers.
The eldest of two daughters, she took to cricket at eight years old, after watching her father Mohammad Shakeel bowl medium pace in local leagues. India quicks Jhulan Goswami and Jasprit Bumrah have been her inspiration.
She took three wickets in as many matches against the New Zealand Development side at home last month and four wickets in two matches in the South Africa series. She wasn’t picked for the warm-up against Australia U-19s, but impressed with figures of 3- 1-7-1 during her side’s three-run defeat against Bangladesh U-19s in the following practice game.
Hrishita Basu
If glovework alone was a parameter, pint-sized pocket dynamo Basu, the second wicketkeeper in the squad after Ghosh, would beat the latter as far as making the XI at the U-19 World Cup goes.
Basu, 18, is likely to warm the bench, unless the India U-19s think-tank sees merit in using her as a pure batter, a role she has the tools to do well in. Her crucial 39-ball 28 at No. 7 in India’s 18-run win over Australia U-19s in the first practice game, on Monday, lent credence to that claim.
One of the three players from Bengal in the U-19 World Cup squad, Basu doesn’t have the prodigious power that Ghosh injects in her batting to send sixes soaring into the stands. But what she lacks in muscle or reach, she often makes up for in inventive strokeplay. She trains at former Bengal and IPL allrounder Laxmi Ratan Shukla’s LRS Bangla Sports Academy in her hometown Howrah.
Her judgment as a keeper, clean collection, quips and animated celebrations make her quite the ideal package for an up-and-coming wicketkeeper on the international scene. She models much of her craft on former India captain MS Dhoni’s. When not keeping wicket, Basu makes for a gun fielder too.
Parshavi Chopra
The frontline legspinner in the squad, Chopra, 16, started out as a medium-pacer but switched to bowling wristpin for want of pace. She hails from Uttar Pradesh and is a student at the Yuvraj Singh Centre of Excellence in Greater Noida.
Her figures in the two warm-ups read 3-0-14-2 (against Australia U-19s) and 2-0-10-0 (against Bangladesh U-19s). Against South Africa, she picked two wickets across the two matches she played, for a meagre 24 runs. She struck a combined three times in the two innings she bowled during India A’s title triumph at the quandragular series.
She hones her craft by watching videos of the legendary Australia legspinner Shane Warne and has enviable control over both flight and pace. Her lower-order hitting could strengthen her chances of playing India U-19s’ all three group matches at the U-19 World Cup.
Falak Naz
The opening bowler’s spot in the U-19 World Cup warm-ups changed hands between Shabnam and Naz, who sent down three overs for 11 runs against Australia U-19s, but didn’t figure on the wickets’ column. Though shorter than both Sadhu and Shabnam, Naz bowls an attacking line and moves the ball in the air with control. She has an incisive inswinger that can rattle the opposition.
Her cricketing journey began on the streets of Uttar Pradesh, as the only girl playing with boys in the neighbourhood – a common theme among a vast demographic of Indian women cricketers. She went on to play a substantial amount of school cricket, which, along with her performance in local matches, led to her selection in the Uttar Pradesh Under-19 side in 2018-19.
Though she couldn’t pick any wickets during the assignment against New Zealand Development last month, she took four wickets in two matches against South Africa U- 19s.
Archana Devi
The right-arm offspinner featured in both warm-up matches and has emerged as India’s first-choice slow-bowling option at the World Cup thanks to her miserly returns. Her height is a key factor why she is able to ask questions of opposition line-ups with variations in the bounce she generates.
A well-built athlete for an 18-year-old, she is adept at both stemming the run flow as also pick wickets. Her 3 for 15 and 3 for 14 in the New Zealand Development and the South Africa U-19 series respectively have been a reflection of that trait.
She adds depth to India’s batting, too, and can chip in with momentum-changing vital quick runs in the lower order or close out innings in case of top- or middle-order collapses. In the warm-up against Australia U-19s, her 17-ball unbeaten pushed the India U-19s closer to 100.
Like Mendhiya, Archana was a kid when she lost her father. The benevolence of former state-level and India women cricketers from Uttar Pradesh, including former national selector Rita Dey, has been instrumental in giving Archana’s life and career direction.
Sonam Yadav
The 15-year-old is likely to face stiff competition from Kashyap for the left-arm orthodox spinner’s spot. She had piped Kashyap to the XI in the first warm-up, against Australia U-19s, ahead of the U-19 World Cup, bowling three wicketless overs for 12 before Kashyap replaced her in the second practice fixture.
Kashyap’s pinch-hitting abilities also hand her an edge over Yadav, who started playing cricket only five years ago. The latest among a long list of left-armer spinners from Uttar Pradesh to represent India in women’s international cricket, after the likes of Neetu David and Ekta Bisht, to name a few, Yadav was the leading wicket-taker in the 2022- 23 U-19 T20 Challenger Trophy with four wickets from seven games.
Nooshin Al Khadeer (Head coach)
A former India offspinner, Al Khadeer has been a great success in domestic cricket coaching in the country over the past decade. She has been in charge of women’s state sides like Hyderabad, Chhattisgarh and heavyweights Railways, and was the India Under-19 A head coach that won the quadrangular series in Vizag. She was retained in the role for the series against New Zealand development which India won 5-0 and was, unsurprisingly, named the head coach for the U-19 World Cup.
Al Khadeer played 78 ODIs, two T20Is and five Tests between 2002 and 2010, and was part of the Indian side that played a women’s World Cup final for the first time: in South Africa, in 2005. India came up short against eventual winners Australia and finished runners-up. Eighteen years on, Al Khadeer finds herself in the same country, albeit in a different capacity, aiming to bring home India’s first world title in the women’s game.
