India won the Under-19 T20 World Cup under the captaincy of Shafali Verma, who has her next assignment chalked up in the form of senior Women's T20 World Cup 2023 which is set to start from February 10. Shafali will look to replicate the U-19 history in the senior fold but this time she will be playing under the captaincy of Harmanpreet Kaur. India will kick off their Women's T20 World Cup 2023 campaign against arch-rivals Pakistan at the Newlands in Cape Town on February 12.
Few days back, the Shafali Verma's brigade were felicitated by Sachin Tendulkar and BCCI. They were presented a Rs 5 crore cheque for their exceptional feat in the history of Indian women's cricket. Right after that India's senior women's cricket team led by Harmanpreet left for South Africa.
Right before they left for the showpiece tournament, Shafali and her teammate Richa Ghosh were asked about their feelings after clinching the World Cup a week ago before heading towards the much bigger goal.
“Ab senior World Cup title jeetna hai, Richa (Now it's time to win the senior World Cup title, Richa)," Shafali was quoted as saying to The Times of India while putting her arms around Richa.
"Shafali led from the front. She injected confidence in the team. She always said, 'chinta mat karo, hum jeetenge' (Don't worry, we will win). She said this before every match. Her words encouraged us to do well," Richa said.
"We have won the World Cup title. I have no words because the feeling of being a World Cup winner is yet to sink in. It is our first and I am sure the future India teams will carry on the winning run," she further added.
The Women's T20 World Cup will be played between February 10 to February 26 as it will see will see 10 teams, including three former champions, battling out for the coveted title. In the eighth edition of the tournament, the ten teams will be divided into two groups of five and each team will face each team of their respective group in single round-robin format with the top two teams progressing to the knock-out round. Defending and record champions Australia have been drawn alongside hosts South Africa, New Zealand, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh in Group 1, while India are grouped along with 2009 winner England, 2016 winner West Indies, Pakistan and Ireland in Group 2.
India's squad for Women's T20 World Cup 2023: Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Verma, Yastika Bhatia, Richa Ghosh, Jemimah Rodrigues, Harleen Deol, Deepti Sharma, Devika Vaidya, Radha Yadav, Renuka Thakur, Anjali Sarvani, Pooja Vastrakar, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Shikha Pandey. Reserves: Sabbhineni Meghana, Sneh Rana, Meghna Singh.
The Schedule
ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2023 Schedule
10 February – South Africa vs Sri Lanka (Cape Town)
11 February – West Indies vs England (Paarl)
11 February – Australia vs New Zealand (Paarl)
12 February – India vs Pakistan (Cape Town)
12 February – Bangladesh vs Sri Lanka (Cape Town)
13 February – Ireland vs England (Paarl)
13 February – South Africa vs New Zealand (Paarl)
14 February – Australia vs Bangladesh (Gqeberha)
15 February – West Indies vs India (Cape Town)
15 February – Pakistan vs Ireland (Cape Town)
16 February – Sri Lanka vs Australia (Gqeberha)
17 February – New Zealand vs Bangladesh (Cape Town)
17 February – West Indies vs Ireland (Cape Town)
18 February – England vs India (Gqeberha)
18 February – South Africa vs Australia (Gqeberha)
19 February – Pakistan vs West Indies (Paarl)
19 February – New Zealand vs Sri Lanka (Paarl)
20 February – Ireland vs India (Gqeberha)
21 February – England vs Pakistan (Cape Town)
21 February – South Africa vs Bangladesh (Cape Town)
23 February – SEMI-FINAL 1 (Cape Town)
24 February – SEMI-FINAL 2 (Cape Town)
26 February – FINAL (Cape Town)
