Promising Siliguri cricketer Richa Ghosh has received her first call from the Indian cricket team for Test and one-day international (ODI) matches against Australia.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has announced the women’s cricket squad team for the upcoming Australia tour, where the team will play a Test, three ODIs and an equal number of T20 matches. Richa, a wicketkeeper and attacking right-hand batswoman, is in the team in all three formats.
Richa will appear in the entire tour of Australia as the second wicketkeeper of the team in the Test squad and stand behind the stumps as the sole wicketkeeper of the team in the ODI and T20 matches.
“It is for the first time that she got selected in the Test and the ODI squads for Team India. It is indeed an achievement for her,” Richa’s father Manabendra Ghosh told this paper on Wednesday, adding that he would join his daughter at the National Cricket Academy, Bangalore, where she is participating in a conditioning camp, later this month.
The team is likely to leave for Australia on August 30 and the Test will be played at Perth from September 30 to October 3, said sources.
Richa debuted in international cricket in the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup held in Australia in 2020, where she appeared as a concussion-sub, meaning a substitute for a player who may retire hurt, in the final. At the recently held England tour, she stood behind the stumps for all three T20 matches.
Manoj Verma, secretary of the cricket committee of Siliguri Mahakuma Krira Parishad, the sub-divisional sports body of Siliguri, hailed Richa’s inclusion in all three formats as a “major achievement”.
“We have all seen her perform at the T20 matches in England in July. Her ability to attack the bowler and her quickness behind the stumps perhaps impressed the selectors,” said Verma.
Siliguri’s most famous cricket export, Wriddhiman Saha, is currently touring England with the Indian Test team.
“Wriddhiman’s and Richa’s successive selections in the national teams will definitely attract more budding talents of Siliguri to join cricket. We also want the infrastructure for cricket in the city to improve,” Verma added.
