India women cricketers Smriti Mandhana and Harmanpreet Kaur have pulled out from the ongoing inaugural edition of The Hundred Women tournament and are set to return to India for varying reasons.
Smriti Mandhana Harmanpreet opt-out of The Hundred
Mandhana, who represented Southern Brave, will fly back home to spend time with her family before embarking on the tour of Australia in September. Whereas, Harmanpreet is cutting her stint short due to a quad injury.
The stylish left-hander – Mandhana will be replaced by Ireland’s Gaby Lewis for the final two games of The Hundred Women, including the final. Manchester Originals meanwhile, haven’t yet named a replacement for Harmanpreet.
“I would love to be able to stay with the team until the final, but we’ve been away from home for a long time with more tours ahead. I’ll be watching the team at Lord’s and hoping they can continue our good form. It’s been a fantastic competition to be involved in and I’ve really enjoyed it.,” said Smriti in a statement.
Harmanpreet, who was playing for Manchester Originals, has a quadriceps injury. A replacement will not be sought by her team, who are at the bottom of the table.
The 32-year-old Harmanpreet was in top form for Manchester Originals with scores of 29, 49 not out and 26 from three games before getting injured.
Huge blow to Southern Brave: Smriti Mandhana withdraws from their last two games, including the final, to spend time with family before India’s Australia tour. Ireland’s Gaby Lewis is her replacement
— Matt Roller (@mroller98) August 12, 2021
Smriti’s final innings for Southern Brave came on Wednesday when she hit 78 runs off 52 balls to lead her side to victory over Welsh Fire. For her scintillating knock, she was adjudged as the ‘Player of the Match’.
In total, Smriti scored 167 runs in seven innings at a strike rate of 133.60. Harmanpreet, on the other hand, amassed 104 runs from three innings at a strike rate of 109.47.
Shafali Verma (Birmingham Phoenix), Deepti Sharma (London Spirit), and the tournament’s top run-getter at the moment, Jemimah Rodrigues (Northern Superchargers) are the other Indians still playing in the tournament.
