Jemimah Rodrigues, the talented Mumbai batter, has been picked in the 16-member squad for the One-Day International series in South Africa, the Board of Control for Cricket in India announced. The three ODIs will be part of the ICC Women's Championship and will be played on February 5, 7 and 10.
Mithali Raj will lead the side while Harmanpreet Kaur continues to be her deputy. The selectors have also decided to pick a back-up wicketkeeper in Taniya Bhatia apart from regular wicketkeeper Sushma Verma. Bhatia takes the place of Nuzhat Parween, who was part of the 2017 World Cup squad.
Rodrigues, all of 17, shot to limelight when she smashed 202 in the Inter-State women's Under-19 one-day tournament for Mumbai against Saurashtra. She became only the second player to hit a double century in an Under-19 fixture after Smriti Mandhana.
Pooja Vastrakar, the Madhya Pradesh all-rounder, has also earned a call-up and will replace pacer, Mansi Joshi, who is undergoing rehab for a knee injury that ruled her out of the Challenger Trophy.
The team will play a warm-up clash in Bloemfontein on February 2 before playing the first two ODIs in Kimberley. The last match of the series will be played in Potchefstroom. The series will be followed by the two teams playing a five-match Twenty20 International series.
Squad: Mithali Raj (c), Harmanpreet Kaur, Sushma Verma (wk), Ekta Bisht, Smriti Mandhana, Poonam Yadav, Punam Raut, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Jemimah Rodrigues, Jhulan Goswami, Deepti Sharma, Shikha Pandey, Mona Meshram, Pooja Vastrakar, Veda Krishnamurthy, Taniya Bhatia.
