Team USA Women have named a strong squad for their chance at history as they look to become the first American side to qualify for a T20 World Cup over the coming weeks. Captained by Sindhu Sriharsha, there is one change to the squad that beat Canada convincingly 3-0 in Fort Lauderdale in May to seal their place as the Americas representative at the Global Qualifier, as Akshatha Rao comes into the squad for Candacy Atkins.

The USA Women’s National Team is due to arrive in Chelmsford, Essex on Thursday 22nd August for a week of preparation, ahead of the ICC T20 World Cup Global Qualifier scheduled to be played 31 August – 8 September in Dundee, Scotland. The team will play warm-up matches against MCC on 24 August beginning 11h00 and against Essex County 26 August , 14h00.

The team will then travel onward to Dundee where they will train prior to playing their final practice game against Thailand, to be played at Arbroath CC on 29 August, 14h00.

Eight teams are divided into two groups with the top two in each group advancing to the semi-finals, and the winners of the two semi-finals ensuring a place at the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2020 to be held in the Australian cities of Canberra, Melbourne, Perth, and Sydney from 21 February to 8 March next year.

Bangladesh, Scotland, PNG and the USA form Group A, while Group B consists of Ireland, Thailand, Namibia, and the Netherlands.

Team USA is scheduled to play Scotland (Forfarshire Cricket Club) on 31 August, Bangladesh 1 September (Arbroath Sports Club) and PNG on 3 September (Arbroath Sports Club). All matches are scheduled to start 14h00.

The USA Women’s Head Coach, Julia Price, is looking forward to the challenge in Scotland, “I’m very pleased with the build-up that we’ve had into this ICC Global Qualifier, after a really high quality training camp the way we played in our 3-0 series win over Canada in Florida showed what we can do. Getting a full week in advance in the UK to adjust to local conditions is absolutely crucial and with two good matches lined up against the MCC and Essex it means we will travel to Scotland with perfect preparations. We have had a strong group focus on this tournament for more than 6 months now and we want to go and show our skills on the Global stage.”

Team USA Squad:

Sindhu Sriharsha, Captain/WK (California)

Shebani Bhaskar Vice Captain (Mass)

Claudine Beckford (Missouri/Germany)

Sara Farooq (New Jersey)

Nadia Gruny (Florida)

Uzma Iftikhar (California)

Sugetha Kalyanaraman Chandhrasekar (California)

Mahika Kandanala (Texas)

Geetika Kodali (North Carolina)

Samantha Ramautar(New York)

Lisa Ramjit (Maryland)

Akshatha Rao (California)

Erica Rendler (California)

Onika Wallerson (New Jersey)

Schedule

Warm-up match

29 August: USA v Thailand (10.00am, Arbroath Cricket Club)

Qualifier group stage

31 August: USA v Scotland (2.00pm, Forfarshire Cricket Club)

1 September: USA v Bangladesh (2.00pm, Arbroath Cricket Club)

3 September: USA v Papua New Guinea (2.00pm, Arbroath Cricket Club)

Finals stages

5 September: Semi-Finals

7 September: Final