Ind vs Zim – Niki Prasad, Jintimani Kalita and Nandani Sharma the new faces in Smriti Mandhana-led white-ball sides

Smriti Mandhana’s first assignment as full-time India white-ball captain will be at home against Zimbabwe, when three T20Is and three ODIs are played between October 16 and October 28, the T20Is in Raipur and the ODIs in Vadodara. Niki Prasad and Jintimani Kalita are the new faces in the T20I squad Mandhana will lead, while Nandani Sharma is the new face in the ODI side, though she has featured in T20Is already.

The ODI squad looks more different. When India last played the format, in Australia on their tour in February-March this year, G Kamalini, Jemimah Rodrigues, Amanjot Kaur, Sneh Rana and Kashvee Gautam were all in the line-up.

Rodrigues has been out of action since going down with a high-grade right hamstring tear while with Southern Brave at the women’s Hundred earlier this year, which forced her to miss India’s Asian Games campaign too.

Prasad, most recently in action for India A in the all-format series against Australia A at home in September-October, where she put in starring performances with bat and ball, was also India’s captain when they won the Under-19 World Cup in 2025 in Malaysia.

Against Australia A, she hit an unbeaten 54 in the second T20, and was at her best later in the series, picking up four wickets and hitting 76 in 71 balls in India’s win in the third one-day match and then putting in a Player-of-the-Match performance in the one-off four-day game, scoring 91 in the first innings and returning a match haul of 7 for 77, including a five-for in the second innings.

Kalita’s selection might have been a bit unexpected, since she wasn’t really among the wickets in either the A tour of England in June-July or the games she played against Australia A at home more recently.

Nandani, already capped in T20Is and part of the Asian Games triumph in Nisshin, has been one of the most exciting fast-bowling prospects in India in recent times, and had impactful performances at both the women’s T20 Asia Cup in Dubai in August-September, where India won, and at the Asian Games.

With Mandhana’s promotion to the captaincy, India have two new vice-captains too. Shafali Verma is the deputy for the T20Is, while Deepti Sharma has the responsibility for the ODIs.

India squad for T20I series against Zimbabwe

Smriti Mandhana (capt), Shafali Verma (vice-capt), Niki Prasad, Harmanpreet Kaur, Anushka Sharma, Richa Ghosh (wk), G Kamalini (wk), Deepti Sharma, Prema Rawat, N Shree Charani, Nandani Sharma, Kranti Gaud, Arundhati Reddy, Jintimani Kalita, Minnu Mani

India squad for ODI series against Zimbabwe

Smriti Mandhana (capt), Shafali Verma, Pratika Rawal, Harmanpreet Kaur, Harleen Deol, Tejal Hasabnis, Deepti Sharma (vice-capt), Richa Ghosh (wk), Yastika Bhatia (wk), Vaishnavi Sharma, Nandani Sharma, N Shree Charani, Kranti Gaud, Sayali Satghare, Renuka Singh

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