BCCI Announces India Squad For ICC Women's World Cup 2025 - Shafali Verma Misses Out, Renuka Singh Thakur Included Despite Injury Woes

India's squad for the ICC Women's World Cup has been named, with Harmanpreet Kaur set to lead the side and Smriti Mandhana named as her deputy. 

Renuka Singh Thakur makes a comeback to the side, while Shafali Verma misses out on a spot in the squad despite her ability to go big and score quickly in the powerplays.

"Shafali played the Australia A series. She's in the system, not like she's not. We've got our eyes on her. Hope she plays a lot more and garners experience, it'll help serve India in the 50-overs format," chief selector Neetu David said on Verma's exclusion.

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Why Did Shafali Miss Out?

One of the issues in fitting Shafali in is the form of the batters already in the squad in recent times. 

Captain Harmanpreet and vice-captain Smriti Mandhana are sure-shot starters, with Mandhana set to open and Harmanpreet to play in the middle order. 

Jemimah Rodrigues is also a guaranteed starter in the XI and Richa Ghosh will play in the lower order for sure, given she can bat well in the death overs too. 

The other opener slot might have been up for grabs but Pratika Rawal has all but ensured that spot goes to her too - she has scored 703 runs in 14 innings at 54.07 at a strike-rate of 88. 

Therefore, slotting Shafali into the squad made no sense.  

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Renuka Included Despite Injury Concerns

Perhaps the other major concern for the Indian team management was whether or not Renuka Singh Thakur could be in the squad, as she only recently attained full fitness after a stress fracture. 

There is a risk element, however - she has not played a game since the WPL 2025 and will only have the Australia series to tune up for the big event. 

Nonetheless, the management have backed her due to her new-ball exploits and the hope is that will hit the ground running at a crucial time of the year.  

Team India's squad for ICC Women's Cricket World Cup 2025: Harmanpreet Kaur (Capt), Smriti Mandhana (VC), Pratika Rawal, Harleen Deol, Deepti Sharma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Renuka Singh Thakur, Arundhati Reddy, Richa Ghosh (WK), Kranti Gaud, Amanjot Kaur, Radha Yadav, Sree Charani, Yastika Bhatia (WK) and Sneh Rana.