Johannesburg: Australia and New Zealand have been forced to make changes to their ICC Women’s U19 T20 World Cup squads after the first round of games were completed over the weekend.
While Australia succumbed to a surprise loss to Bangladesh by seven wickets on Saturday, New Zealand cruised to a ten-wicket win over Indonesia on Sunday.
Now, New Zealand have suffered a blow by losing left-arm spinner Fran Jonas to injury. Fran, 18, had already featured in 23 senior women’s international matches across ODIs and T20Is, but she will miss the rest of the tournament due to a calf strain.
New Zealand, with the approval of the Event Technical Committee (ETC) of the ICC U19 Women’s T20 World Cup, have named Kate Irwin as her replacement. Kate, hailing from Auckland, was a top performer at the National Tournament in Lincoln that finished in December last year, finishing as the joint-highest wicket-taker with 15 scalps.
Australia, on the other hand, have made two changes with Chloe Ainsworth and Jade Allen ruled out of the tournament after sustaining thumb fractures. Paris Hall and Ananaya Sharma have been named as their replacements.
Both Paris and Ananaya were non-travelling reserves for the tournament. While Paris is a wicketkeeper batter, who received her maiden Women’s National Cricket League contract with South Australia in May last year, Ananaya was the leading wicket-taker at the U19 Female National Championships.
The Event Technical Committee of the ICC U19 Women’s T20 World Cup 2023 consists of Sarah Edgar (Chair), ICC Senior Manager Event Operations, Snehal Pradhan, ICC Women’s Cricket Manager, Sivuyile Mqingwana, Tournament Director, Claire Terblanche, (Cricket South Africa), Lydia Greenway (Independent), Stacy-Ann King (Independent).
The top three teams from each group will progress to the Super Six round, where teams will be pooled into two groups of six. The top two teams from each group will then progress to the semi-finals, which will be played on January 27 at JB Marks Oval in Potchefstroom. The final will take place at the same venue on January 29.
–IANS