Smriti Mandhana, Harmanpreet Kaur Return To Action For T20Is vs Sri Lanka, Two Debutants Named

Gunalan Kamalini and Vaishnavi Sharma on Tuesday received their maiden call-ups to the Indian women's team for the upcoming five-match T20I series against Sri Lanka at home. The series will be played from December 21 to 30, with the first two games in Visakhapatnam and the last three in Thiruvananthapuram. While 17-year-old wicketkeeper-batter Kamalini has featured in nine matches for Mumbai Indians in the Women's Premier League, Vaishnavi, 19, who is also part of the 15-member India squad, was not drafted in the WPL auctions.

Kamalini and Vaishnavi replace Radha Yadav and Uma Chhetri, who were part of the squad that triumphed in the ODI World Cup last month.

Apart from Kamalini and Vaishnavi, the squad comprises all the familiar names, with Harmanpreet Kaur leading the team and Smriti Mandhana serving as vice-captain.

Big-hitting opener Shafali Verma, who replaced Pratika Rawal in the World Cup squad just before the semifinal against Australia after the latter was ruled out of the tournament with an injury, is also part of the team.

India and Sri Lanka will play the five-match series just before the start of WPL 2026 on January 9 in Navi Mumbai.

The schedule for this bilateral series was announced soon after the white-ball series between India and Bangladesh, which was to happen in India in December, got postponed last month.

The last time India and Sri Lanka played a T20I was at the World Cup in October 2024.

India's squad: Harmanpreet Kaur (capt), Smriti Mandhana (vice-captain), Deepti Sharma, Sneh Rana, Jemimah Rodrigues, Shafali Verma, Harleen Deol, Amanjot Kaur, Arundhati Reddy, Kranti Gaud, Renuka Singh Thakur, Richa Ghosh (WK), G Kamalini (WK), Sree Charani, Vaishnavi Sharma.

Topics mentioned in this article

India Women Sri Lanka Women Smriti Mandhana Harmanpreet Kaur Cricket