The Hundred: Smriti Mandhana and injured Harmanpreet Kaur to return to India
Marchant de Lange is back with Trent Rockets after Wahab Riaz is forced out with an injury
ESPNcricinfo staff
12-Aug-2021
Smriti Mandhana leaves the competition having scored 167 runs from seven innings • Getty Images
Smriti Mandhana and Harmanpreet Kaur will play no further part in the Hundred. While Mandhana, of Southern Brave, will fly back home to spend time with her family before the India Women's tour of Australia next month - and will be replaced by Ireland's Gaby Lewis - Manchester Originals' Harmanpreet has a quad injury. Her team will not replace her.
"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," Mandhana said in a statement." 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."
Mandhana's final innings was her best when, on Wednesday, she hit a 52-ball 78 to lead Brave to victory over Welsh Fire. Overall, she scored 167 runs from seven innings at a strike rate of 133.60. Harmanpreet, meanwhile, aggregated 104 runs from three innings, striking at 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 in the fray.
The Indian players who are in the squad for the tour of Australia - one day-night Test and three ODIs and T20Is each, between September 19 and October 11 - reached Bengaluru on Tuesday and are currently in quarantine before taking part in a pre-tour camp. The players who are part of the Hundred are expected to join them after the end of the tournament on August 21 before travelling together to Australia.
There has been a change in the men's Hundred competition too, where an injury to Wahab Riaz has led to a comeback for Marchant de Lange at Trent Rockets. Curiously, de Lange was released by the team just last week when Wahab, whose participation in the tournament was delayed because of visa-related issues, was finally available for selection.
De Lange was one of the bowling stars of the early bit of the competition, with eight wickets from three games, before Wahab joined the team. But he left when Wahab returned to the UK after being forced to go back to Pakistan - he didn't have a valid work permit - and sort the matter out, and then return to link up with his team.
ESPNcricinfo understands that Trent Rockets will also be without Luke Wood for the final stages of the Hundred after he suffered a side strain. The ECB confirmed on Thursday night that Saqib Mahmood would be released from England's Test squad to play for Oval Invincibles against London Spirit on Saturday.