Smriti Mandhana, Harmanpreet Kaur to lead women's teams in T20 Challenge

Bengaluru, May 17: Smriti Mandhana and Harmanpreet Kaur will lead IPL Trailblazers and IPL Supernovas respectively in the Women's T20 Challenge to be played at the Wankhede Stadium ahead of the IPL Qualifier 1.

Speaking about the Women's T20 Challenge, Rajeev Shukla, Chairman, IPL, said, "Even as IPL continues to roll like a well-oiled machine, over the last couple of weeks, efforts were made to put in place a similar structure for women cricketers. We were in talks with several Boards and I am pleased with the outcome.

"White Ferns captain Suzie Bates, attacking batter Sophie Devine, who holds the record for fastest half-century in women's T20Is, Australia's fine all-rounder Ellyse Perry, wicket-keeper bat Alyssa Healy, Megan Schutt and Beth Mooney have confirmed their participation. Danni Wyatt and Daniel Hazell will add the English flavour.

"This special game will be played at Mumbai's iconic Wankhede Stadium and will be telecast live in India and across the world".

Diana Edulji, member of Committee of Administrators (CoA) and former India captain, said: "We are excited to announce the first-of-its-kind exhibition match involving our women cricketers.

"BCCI has been pulling out all stops to promote and nurture women's cricket and this is a small yet significant step towards a prospective league involving women's stars in the future.

"The IPL is the biggest and most popular league in the world and it has been a long-time endeavour to have a women's league that can match the exuberance of IPL.

"Mithali Raj, Jhulan Goswami, Harmanpreet Kaur, Smriti Mandhana and Veda Krishnamurthy among others rubbing shoulders with foreign stars will be a unique experience and something that we have not witnessed here in India."

The match will begin at 14:00 IST and it will be followed by the IPL Qualifier 1 at 19:00 IST.

Teams: IPL Trailblazers: Smriti Mandhana (Captain), Alyssa Healy, Suzie Bates, Deepti Sharma, Beth Mooney, Jemimah Rodrigues, Danielle Hazell, Shikha Pandey, Lea Tahuhu, Jhulan Goswami, Ekta Bisht, Poonam Yadav, D Hemalatha.

IPL Supernovas: Harmanpreet Kaur (Captain), Danielle Wyatt, Mithali Raj, Meg Lanning, Sophie Devine, Ellyse Perry, Veda Krishnamurthy, Mona Meshram, Pooja Vastrakar, Megan Schutt, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Anuja Patil, Taniya Bhatia.