Mithali Raj, Harmanpreet Kaur named captains for England tour

Bengaluru, May 14: Mithali Raj and Harmanpreet Kaur have been named as captains for the Indian women's cricket team's forthcoming tour of England.

The all-India senior women's selection committee announced the squad for the one-off Test match as well as the ODI and T20 series against England.

Mithali will lead the Women in Blue in Tests and One-Day Internationals and Harmanpreet in T20Is.

The Indian women's team will play a solitary Test and three ODIs and as many T20Is during their tour of the Old Blighty which begins in the third week of June.

Earlier, former India cricketer Ramesh Powar was appointed as the new head coach of the national women's team by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), replacing incumbent WV Raman.

The Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC) of the BCCI recommended Powar's name for the job after interviewing eight potential candidates.

Ramesh Powar appointed coach of Indian Women's Cricket Team

However, his appointment has literally opened a pandora's box with Raman drafting an e-mail to the BCCI, alleging 'prima donna culture' in the national team.

In the e-mail that has also been marked to National Cricket Academy head Rahul Dravid, Raman, himself a former international, has also offered to present a roadmap for women's cricket in the country, if asked.

Raman writes a letter to Ganguly, Dravid; alleges 'prima donna culture'

Former India opener Raman's unceremonious ouster from head coach's position has opened a can of worms with both the Madan Lal-headed CAC and Neetu David-led selection panel coming under the scanner of BCCI bigwigs.

The PTI news agency reported that Raman had red-flagged the squad that David, picked for the home series against South Africa, for which teen batting sensation Shafali Verma was not picked for the ODIs and senior pacer Shikha Pandey was inexplicably dropped.

Raman Effect: Neetu David's selection panel, CAC members Lal and Naik under scanner

The month-long England tour will begin with the one-off Test on June 16 at Bristol.

That will be followed by ODIs on June 27 (Bristol), June 30 (Taunton) and July 3 (Worcester).

The T20s will be held on July 9 (Northants) July 11 (Hove) and July 15 (Chelmsford).

Squad

Test & ODI : Mithali Raj (Captain), Smriti Mandhana, Harmanpreet Kaur (vice-captain), Punam Raut, Priya Punia, Deepti Sharma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Shafali Verma, Sneh Rana, Taniya Bhatia (wicket-keeper), Indrani Roy (wicket-keeper), Jhulan Goswami, Shikha Pandey, Pooja Vastrakar, Arundhati Reddy, Poonam Yadav, Ekta Bisht, Radha Yadav.

Squad for T20I : Harmanpreet Kaur (Captain) Smriti Mandhana (vice-captain), Deepti Sharma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Shafali Verma, Richa Ghosh, Harleen Deol, Sneh Rana, Taniya Bhatia (wicket-keeper), Indrani Roy (wicket-keeper), Shikha Pandey, Pooja Vastrakar, Arundhati Reddy, Poonam Yadav, Ekta Bisht, Radha Yadav, Simaran Dil Bahadur.