Harmanpreet captained India to a Test win at Lord’s in July, and she will play under Mandhana in South Africa
The BCCI has named Smriti Mandhana captain for all three formats on India’s December tour of South Africa, which opens with a one-off Test in Gqeberha.
Nov 9, 2026
Smriti Mandhana will captain India in a women’s Test for the first time when the tour of South Africa opens in Gqeberha on 9 December. The BCCI named her to lead all three squads on Monday, and Harmanpreet Kaur, who captained India to a 270-run win over England at Lord’s in July, is in every one of them as a player.
Harmanpreet stepped down as captain on 6 October and the board named Mandhana in her place the same day. At that point Mandhana had led India in 18 T20Is and four ODIs. She had never captained a Test side, and India have not played one since Lord’s.
Deepti and Shafali as deputies
Deepti Sharma is vice-captain for the Test and the ODIs. Shafali Verma takes that role in the T20Is.
The Test and ODI squads are the same 15 players with one swap. Sneh Rana is in for the Test, Vaishnavi Sharma for the ODIs. The choice of Rana makes sense: the last time India played South Africa in a Test, in Chennai in 2024, she took 8 for 77 in their first innings and India won by ten wickets.
Yastika Bhatia is the other wicketkeeper alongside Richa Ghosh in both of the longer squads. She made 113 in the second innings at Lord’s, the first women’s Test hundred on the ground.
A wider net for the T20Is
The T20I squad has 17 players. Niki Prasad and Anushka Sharma are in, G Kamalini is the second keeper, and Renuka Singh Thakur and Arundhati Reddy come in as extra pace options for the shortest format only.
Prema Rawat is in it too. On 2 November the 24-year-old made a 14-ball fifty for Uttarakhand against Hyderabad in the Senior Women’s T20 Trophy, the fastest half-century on record in women’s T20 cricket.
Those three T20Is are worth more than they look. India host the first Women’s Champions Trophy, a six-team T20I event, in Mumbai and Vadodara from 14 to 28 February, and South Africa are one of the five sides coming.
The schedule
The Test runs from 9 to 12 December at St George’s Park in Gqeberha. India have played only one Test in South Africa before, at Paarl in March 2002, and they won it by ten wickets.
The ODIs, which count towards the ICC Women’s Championship, are in Paarl on 16 December, Cape Town on 19 December and Bloemfontein on 22 December. The T20Is start in Benoni on 26 December and finish with two games in Potchefstroom on 29 and 30 December.
India’s squads
Test squad: Smriti Mandhana (captain), Shafali Verma, Pratika Rawal, Harmanpreet Kaur, Jemimah Rodrigues, Harleen Deol, Richa Ghosh (wk), Yastika Bhatia (wk), Deepti Sharma (vice-captain), Sree Charani, Sneh Rana, Kranti Gaud, Nandni Sharma, Jintimani Kalita, Sayali Satghare.
ODI squad: Smriti Mandhana (captain), Shafali Verma, Pratika Rawal, Harmanpreet Kaur, Jemimah Rodrigues, Harleen Deol, Richa Ghosh (wk), Yastika Bhatia (wk), Deepti Sharma (vice-captain), Sree Charani, Vaishnavi Sharma, Kranti Gaud, Nandni Sharma, Jintimani Kalita, Sayali Satghare.
T20I squad: Smriti Mandhana (captain), Shafali Verma (vice-captain), Jemimah Rodrigues, Harmanpreet Kaur, Niki Prasad, Richa Ghosh (wk), G Kamalini (wk), Anushka Sharma, Deepti Sharma, Sree Charani, Prema Rawat, Amanjot Kaur, Kranti Gaud, Nandni Sharma, Renuka Singh Thakur, Arundhati Reddy, Sayali Satghare.