- ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup Qualifier 2021 will be held in Zimbabwe from 21st November to 5th December
- The top 3 finishers advance to the Women’s 50 Over Cricket World Cup in New Zealand in 2022, the top 5 advance to the ICC Women’s Championship
Sindhu Sriharsha captains a 15-player squad that will travel to Zimbabwe next month after Team USA won the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup Americas Qualifier in Mexico that concluded earlier this week
Following closely on the success of winning the ICC T20 World Cup Americas Qualifier in Mexico, earlier this week, USA Cricket is excited to now name the 15-player squad that will travel to Zimbabwe for the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup Qualifier 2021. It will be the first 50-overs international cricket for USA Women since the 2011 Women’s Cricket World Cup Qualifier in Bangladesh.
It is another youthful squad named by the USA Women’s Selection Panel, with many of the young players who starred at the Sistar Mortgage Women’s National Championships in Florida, which was the culmination of the new women’s pathway structure established this year, being included. There are two changes in personnel to the squad that won in Mexico with Mahika Kandanala coming in for Laasya Mullapudi, whilst Lisa Ramjit returns to the side having missed out on selection for Mexico.
USA Women’s Head Coach, Julia Price gave eight debut caps across the week in Mexico as USA took five wins from their six games to top the table with 10 points. In winning the tournament, USA have taken the one qualification spot from the Americas region and will now advance to the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup Global Qualifier in 2022.
Chair of the Women’s National Selection Panel, Ritesh Kadu, said, “It is a hugely significant couple of months for American women’s cricket with two critical tournaments coming up so close together after an absence of any competitive action over the past two years. The Selection Panel was pleased with the performance of the squad in Mexico in winning the title, with many of the new young players performing admirably. We have looked to select the most balanced squad possible for the expected conditions in Zimbabwe, and we are confident all 15 players will represent the United States well in what will be a very challenging tournament against several ICC Full Members.”
Julia Price, USA Women’s National Team Head Coach, added, “We are under no illusion as to the scale of the task that we have at hand in Zimbabwe, but also as to the scale of opportunity for our young squad to go and try to achieve something historic for American cricket. I was delighted with the full squad’s efforts in Mexico and we are happy to progress to the Global Qualifier in Twenty20 but the 50 Overs challenge presents a different experience for us. We will be competing against no fewer than six ICC Full Members for the three places at the 2022 Women’s Cricket World Cup. We know these teams will be stronger than anything the USA has faced previously. Still, we are relishing the chance of showing how good our young talent is, and being competitive.”
The ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup Qualifier 2021 will be held in Zimbabwe from 21st November to 5th December.
The 10-team tournament, the schedule for which will be announced in due course, decides three qualifiers for the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup 2022 to be held in New Zealand from 4th March to 3rd April, joining five teams who have already qualified through the ICC Women’s Championship – Australia, England, India, South Africa and hosts New Zealand.
The three qualifiers, and the next two teams, will also be ensured of places in the next ICC Women’s Championship (IWC) along with the top five from last time, as the number of teams in the third cycle of the IWC goes up from eight to 10 teams.
The teams that will be seen in action in the fifth edition of the tournament are Bangladesh, Ireland, the Netherlands, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Sri Lanka, Thailand, the United States, the West Indies, and Zimbabwe.
Team USA Women’s Squad
Sindhu Srihasha (captain)
Shebani Bhaskar (vice-captain)
Akshatha Rao
Anika Kolan
Chetnaa Prasad
Gargi Bhogle
Geetika Kodali
Isani Vaghela
Lisa Ramjit
Mahika Kandanala
Moksha Chaudhary
Sara Farooq
Suhani Thadani
Tara Norris
Uzma Iftikar
