BCCI has yet to announce the squads but Indian, international and national uncapped players have been informed of their selection. Around 30 Indian players due to take part in the Women’s T20 Challenge in the UAE next month have been invited to gather in Mumbai by October 13.
After arriving in Mumbai from various parts of the country on October 18, players will be quarantined for more than a week and they will be tested multiple times during this period. The players will likely leave for the UAE on October 22, after which they will undergo a six-day quarantine like all players participating in the Men’s IPL.
They will enter the event’s bio-bubble after three negative RT-PCR tests. The tournament will take place from November 4 to 9.
“The players have been informed and a WhatsApp group has been created. A few U-19 players have also been chosen. This will give them a lot of visibility,” a BCCI official told PTI on Friday.
Veterans Mithali Raj and Jhulan Goswami, who retired from the international T20s, will feature in the tournament again.
In all likelihood, all four matches will be played in Sharjah, the venue for 12 IPL matches, which also happens to be the smallest field among the three IPL venues.
After being quarantined in Mumbai and the United Arab Emirates, players will have less than a week to acclimatize to the conditions, having not played the game in more than six months. IPL teams arrived in the UAE a month in advance.
“It will be a challenge for sure. We have been training individually but the intensity of the team environment cannot be matched. We will be quarantining in Mumbai for over a week and then another week at Dubai.
“There will be three to four days before the start of the event. Obviously, that will not be easy to achieve,” said one player on condition of anonymity. The Indian team last played in March.
Amid the raging COVID-19 pandemic, there were question marks over the event until BCCI President Sourav Ganguly assured it would take place during the playoffs. offs of the IPL.
BCCI is focusing on foreign players for the competition, but they will be mainly from Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and a few from England and the West Indies, who have not landed WBBL contracts.
