India A squads for England A series: Anushka Sharma to captain, Andhra pacer Shabnam Shakil picked

Anushka Sharma will captain India A in both white-ball legs when England A tour India, and Andhra pacer Shabnam Shakil has been picked for the one-day and multi-day matches. The Women’s Selection Committee named the India A squads on Wednesday, 11 November, for a Muthoot FinCorp series that runs to seven games: three T20s, three one-dayers and a multi-day contest.

The T20s are at the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium in Pune on 30 November, 3 December and 5 December. The series then moves to the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai, which stages the one-day matches on 8, 11 and 14 December and the multi-day fixture from 19 December, according to the BCCI schedule.

Two captains, one constant core

Minnu Mani is Anushka’s deputy in the T20 and one-day squads and takes over as captain when the series switches to the longer format, with Tejal Hasabnis as her vice-captain. Five players appear in all three squads: Mani, Tanisha Singh, wicketkeeper Shipra Giri, Shreyanka Patil and Saima Thakor.

The T20 squad doubles as a stage for players already bound for South Africa. Niki Prasad, G Kamalini, Anushka, Prema Rawat and Amanjot Kaur are all in the senior T20I squad the board announced on Monday, 9 November, and Vaishnavi Sharma, in the India A T20 group, was named for the senior one-day squad on the same day. The A series in Pune ends four days before the senior team opens its South Africa tour with a Test at Gqeberha on 9 December.

A Visakhapatnam pacer returns to the A stage

Shabnam, born in Visakhapatnam on 17 June 2007, plays her domestic cricket for Andhra and bowls right-arm medium-fast. She won the first Under-19 Women’s T20 World Cup with India in 2023. A year later, aged 16, she turned out for Gujarat Giants and set the mark as the Women’s Premier League’s youngest player.

She is not in the T20 squad. Her first chance against England A falls at the Wankhede on Tuesday, 8 December, when the opening one-day match starts at 9 am.