A cricket team with players named Geetika Kodali, Anika Kolan, Aditi Chudasama and Bhumika Bhadriraju… might suggest it is an Indian outfit.
Surprisingly, these are players of the USA cricket team that will participate in the inaugural ICC U-19 Women’s T20 World Cup in South Africa next month.
USA Cricket announced a 15-player squad that will represent the United States of America in the women’s T20 event is scheduled from January 14-29.
Surprisingly, most of the players representing the USA team are of Indian origin.
The squad is captained by Geetika Kodali while the coaching team is led by West Indies batting great Shivnarine Chanderpaul.
The USA face a challenging Group A that features Australia, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka.
Twitterati were quick to react on social media after the announcement.
One user tweeted: “USA Cricket team or India B team??”
Another one commented: “The USA women's cricket team is a more diverse representation of India than the Indian women's cricket team.”
Here are a few more reactions
This ICC U-19 Women’s T20 World Cup is the first edition of what will be a biennial World Cup for the best young female cricketers around the world.
Eleven ICC Full-Member nations gained automatic entry to the event: Australia, Bangladesh, England, India, Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka, West Indies and Zimbabwe.
The remaining five spots were filled by one team from each of the ICC’s five regions.
Team USA Women’s U-19 Squad
Geetika Kodali (C), Anika Kolan (wk), Aditi Chudasama, Bhumika Bhadriraju, Disha Dhingra, Isani Vaghela, Jivana Aras, Laasya Mullapudi, Pooja Ganesh (wk) Pooja Shah, Ritu Singh, Sai Tanmayi Eyyunni, Snigdha Paul, Suhani Thadani, Taranum Chopra
Reserves: Chetnaa Prasad, Kasturi Vedantham, Lisa Ramjit, Mitali Patwardhan, Tya Gonsalves
Head Coach: Shivnarine Chanderpaul
