Richa Ghosh to miss New Zealand ODIs with peculiar reason

India women's cricket team wicketkeeper Richa Ghosh will miss the upcoming ODI series against New Zealand to sit for her class 12 board exams.

Ghosh, who just turned 21, has been part of Indian teams, in different capacity, since 2020, when she was just 16 years old.

The

squad of 16 players for the three ODIs in Ahmedabad

on October 24, 27 and 29 will be led by Harmanpreet Kaur , whose captaincy had come under scrutiny after India's group-stage exit from the ongoing Women's T20 World Cup in the UAE.

At the tournament, India started with a disappointing defeat to New Zealand which set the foundation for an event that was played on the backfoot. Even though India beat Pakistan and Sri Lanka thereafter, the impact of that New Zealand loss pegged them back in the net run rate race.

As Team India looks forward, maiden ODI call-ups have been named for the New Zealand series in the form of seam-bowling allrounders Sayali Satghare and Saima Thakor, legspinner Priya Mishra and middle-order batter Tejal Hasabnis.

Other notable absences in the squad are legspinner Asha Sobhana who is unavailable because of injury, while allrounder Pooja Vastrakar has been rested.

India's squad for the three ODI series against New Zealand:

Harmanpreet Kaur (capt), Smriti Mandhana (vc), Shafali Verma, D Hemalatha, Deepti Sharma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Yastika Bhatia (wk), Uma Chetry (wk), Sayali Satgare, Arundhati Reddy, Renuka Singh Thakur, Tejal Hasabnis, Saima Thakor, Priya Mishra, Radha Yadav, Shreyanka Patil.