USA Cricket this week announced the group of players that will make up the Team USA Women’s squad for a Selection Camp this weekend as we come into an exciting year for the Women’s game in the United States.
After the historic first Women’s Development Tour of Australia in March-April of 2018, Team USA Women will have the opportunity to qualify for the Global Qualifier for the ICC Twenty20 World Cup 2020 in Australia that will be held later in 2019.
For Team USA to take the ICC Americas place in that tournament they will need to beat Canada in the Women’s T20 World Cup Qualifier that will be played between the two sides in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida in May this year.
Following talent identification events and combines hosted in four cities across the country in 2018, a group of players have been invited by the USA Cricket Women’s Selection Panel to attend a women’s camp to be held in Florida, February 1-3, 2019. Invited players will be demonstrating their skills, fitness and commitment to the selection process and following the camp, 14 players will be chosen to represent the national squad.
USA Cricket is lucky to have the services of current Windies High Performance Programme Manager and Under 19 Head Coach, Graeme West, for the Selection Camp in Florida. West, who led the West Indies Under 19 side to glory at the ICC Under 19 Cricket World Cup in Bangladesh in 2016, will be providing support whilst USA Cricket finalize the appointment for the Women’s Head Coach role which was advertised earlier in the month.
With so much at stake for the group, USA Project Officer, Wade Edwards noted, “It is an exciting time for women’s cricket globally and it certainly has a bright future here in the USA where the women’s platform is beginning to grow. The chance for Team USA Women to make their first appearance at the Global Qualifier for next year’s ICC T20 World Cup is an exciting one and something I believe the squad are definitely capable of if we can continue our progress.”
The selectors have named a strong panel of 32 players, including many who starred on the Development Tour of Australia, with the exception of Neeha Anand and Triholder Marshall who are both unavailable and have been excused. The final squad of 14 players will come from this selection of 34 players.
The players invited to compete are as follows:
Nivedita Aluri (NY)
Anahita Arora (CA)
Samikshya Aryal (CA)
Candacy Atkins (CT)
Claudine Beckford (MO)
Shebani Bhaskar (MA)
Katy Blunt (IA)
Holly Charles (NY)
Moksha Chaudhary (CO)
Jyotsna Dixit (NY)
Chelsea Douglas (NY)
Sara Farooq (NJ)
Alicia Fernando (MD)
Nadia Gruny (FL)
Uzma Iftikhar (CA)
Sugetha Kalyanaraman (CA)
Mahika Kandanala (TX)
Zeenat Kauser (WA)
Geetika Kodali (CA)
Swati Mishra (GA)
Nisha Patel (NJ)
Samatha Ramataur (NY)
Lisa Ramjit (MD)
Akshatha Rao (CA)
Nikhila Ravi (CA)
Sindhuja Reddy (CA)
Erica Rendler (CA)
Melissa Sandy (NY)
Rabia Shahid (TX)
Delkash Shahriarian (NY)
Sindhu Sriharsha (CA)
Onika Wallerson (NJ)
Excused:
Neeha Anand (CA)
Triholder Marshall (NY)