Mithali Raj advice teammates to ‘Just work on your basics’ ahead of Women’s T20 Challenge

New Delhi: Ahead of the upcoming Women’s T20 Challenge, Velocity skipper Mithali Raj on Wednesday asked her teammates to just focus on the basics.

The Women’s T20 Challenge will be played from November 4-9 here in Sharjah and the competition will be contested between three teams — Trailblazers, Supernovas, and Velocity.

All the players had to quarantine themselves upon landing in the UAE as a precautionary measure against the coronavirus. Mithali said that all players should look to focus on the basics as playing cricket after a long time is not an easy thing to do.

“We are not here to judge anybody, all of us are coming from the quarantine period, just get your basics, for the first two days work on your basics, once the flow comes and then ease into it. Hydrate yourselves well, even if you train for twenty minutes, intensity should be there, don’t try to push too hard,” Mithali said to her teammates in a video posted on the official Twitter handle of IPL.

Mithali will be leading Velocity while Trailblazers and Supernovas will be led by Smriti Mandhana and Harmanpreet Kaur respectively.

Speaking about her training session, Trailblazers captain Smriti Mandhana said: “It was a fun session, I was not expecting to time the ball as I did, it feels good to be back, all girls are very excited, everyone is looking in touch, really looking forward to November 4th.”

For the Women’s Challenger Trophy, all the matches will start from 7:30 PM IST except the second match between Velocity and Trailblazers as that will be played from 3:30 IST in the afternoon.

On October 11, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) had announced the squads and schedule for the upcoming Women’s T20 Challenge. Last year’s finalist Supernovas will be taking on Velocity in the opening game on November 4.

The squads for all three teams are as follows:

Trailblazers — Smriti Mandhana (c), Deepti Sharma, Punam Raut, Richa Ghosh, D Hemlatha, Nuzhat Parween, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Harleen Deol, Jhulan Goswami, Simaran Dil Bahadur, Salma Khatun, Sophie Ecclestone, Natthakan Chantham, Deandra Dottin, Kashvee Gautam.

Velocity — Mithali Raj, Shafali Verma, Veda Krishnamurthy, Sushma Verma, Ekta Bisht, Mansi Joshi, Shikha Pandey, Devika Vaidya, Sushree Dibyadarshini, Manali Dakshini, Leigh Kasperek, Danielle Wyatt, Sune Luus, Jahanara Alam, M Anagha.

Supernovas — Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Jemimah Rodrigues, Chamari Atapattu, Priya Punia, Anuja Patil, Radha Yadav, Taniya Bhatia, Shashikala Sriwardene, Poonam Yadav, Shakera Selman, Arundhati Reddy, Pooja Vastrakar, Ayushi Soni, Ayabonga Khaka, Muskan Malik.