Sree Charani in all three India squads for South Africa tour, Arundhati Reddy in T20Is; Mandhana captain

Sree Charani, the left-arm spinner from Andhra Pradesh’s Kadapa district, has been picked in all three India women’s squads for the South Africa tour in December, and Hyderabad-born pace bowler Arundhati Reddy is in the Twenty20 side. The BCCI named the squads on Monday, 9 November. Smriti Mandhana will captain India in all three formats.

India play seven matches in 22 days: a single Test followed by three ODIs and as many T20Is. The Women’s Selection Committee chose 23 players in all, 15 each for the Test and the ODIs and 17 for the T20Is. Ten are in every squad: Mandhana, Shafali Verma, Harmanpreet Kaur, Jemimah Rodrigues, Richa Ghosh, Deepti Sharma, Sree Charani, Kranti Gaud, Nandni Sharma and Sayali Satghare.

Deepti Sharma is vice-captain for the Test and the ODIs, Shafali Verma for the T20Is. Harmanpreet, India’s captain in the 52-run win over South Africa in the 2025 World Cup final at Navi Mumbai, is in all three squads. Sree Charani plays her domestic cricket for Andhra. Arundhati Reddy, who played for Hyderabad until 2016-17, now turns out for Railways. Both were part of that World Cup-winning squad.

One change from the Zimbabwe ODIs

Mandhana was also captain of the squad named for October’s ODIs against Zimbabwe, a series India swept 3-0 in Vadodara after taking the T20Is by the same margin. Set against that squad, issued by the BCCI on 22 October, the new ODI group has a single change: Jemimah Rodrigues comes in and Tejal Hasabnis is left out.

The squads for the Test and the ODIs differ by one player as well: Sneh Rana is picked for the Test and Vaishnavi Sharma, whose 5 for 39 came in the last of the Zimbabwe ODIs, for the 50-over matches.

Seven players are in the T20I squad alone: Arundhati Reddy, Renuka Singh Thakur, Amanjot Kaur, Niki Prasad, G. Kamalini, Anushka Sharma and Prema Rawat. Renuka was withdrawn from the Zimbabwe ODIs on 22 October because, the BCCI said then, her bowling loads were not yet at the level 50-over cricket demands.

Test from 9 December, 1.30 pm IST

The tour opens with a four-day Test at Gqeberha from Wednesday, 9 December. Play begins at 1.30 pm IST, according to Cricket South Africa’s fixture list. The two teams have met in three Tests before.

The ODIs, which count towards the ICC Women’s Championship, are at Paarl on 16 December (1.30 pm IST), Cape Town on 19 December and Bloemfontein on 22 December (both 5.30 pm IST). The T20Is are at Benoni on 26 December and, on 29 and 30 December, at Potchefstroom, each starting at 9.30 pm IST.