India’s Pooja Vastrakar is out of the Twenty20 International series against Australia, so Harmanpreet Kaur will take the helm

Pooja Vastrakar, an all-rounder for India, has been ruled out due to an injury, and Anjali Sarvani, a promising uncapped left-arm pacer, has been chosen by the selectors to replace her for the upcoming five-match Twenty20 International series against Australia, which will begin on December 9 in Mumbai.

Pooja, who was the captain of the India C team that competed in the Women’s T20 Challenger in Raipur, was “ruled out due to an injury and was not considered for selection,” according to a statement that was issued by the secretary of the BCCI.

Anjali, a left-arm medium pacer for Andhra who is 25 years old, impressed with her tidy bowling display earlier this month when India A was competing in the Women’s Challenger. Poonam Yadav led India A to a runner-up finish in the competition.

Up the match against India D, Anjali turned in a stellar performance, finishing with figures of 2 for 11 from her three overs to help her team advance to the final. She finished with an overall economy rate of 5.50 and collected three wickets throughout the course of the four matches she played.

After an absence of more than four years, left-handed all-rounder Devika Vaidya of Maharashtra will make her long-awaited comeback during the Australia series.

The leg-spin allrounder, who is now 25 years old and made her international debut in a Twenty20 International match against South Africa in 2014, most recently competed for her country in an One-Day International match against England in 2018.

During India B’s four-wicket victory over India C in the T20 Challenger, Devika hit a match-winning 41 off 27 balls to lead her team to victory.

Smriti Mandhana will serve as the assistant to Harmanpreet Kaur in her role as captain of the team.

The first two Twenty20 Internationals that India will play will be held at the DY Patil stadium on December 9 and 11, and then the team will move to the CCI for the remaining three matches on December 14, 17, and 20.

The series will serve as India’s final tune-up before the Twenty20 World Cup, which will begin on February 10 in South Africa.

Squad: Harmanpreet Kaur (Captain), Smriti Mandhana (vice-captain), Shafali Verma, Yastika Bhatia (wicket-keeper), Jemimah Rodrigues, Deepti Sharma, Radha Yadav, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Renuka Singh Thakur, Meghna Singh, Anjali Sarvani, Devika Vaidya, S Meghana, Richa Ghosh (wicket-keeper) and Harleen Deol.