The inaugural edition of the Women’s Hundred happened last year in England with women’s players from across the world participating in the competition. It featured the Indian players as well, and only two of them – Smriti Mandhana and Jemimah Rodrigues have been retained ahead of the 2022 season.
A total of five Indian women’s players, including Smriti and Jemimah participated in the Women’s Hundred last year in England. Apart from the batting duo, the other participants were Harmanpreet Kaur, Shafali Verma and Deepti Sharma.
Kaur and Sharma were excellent in the matches that they played for their teams, while Verma is one of the top batters in women’s cricket right now. Surprisingly though, their franchises have not retained them for the upcoming season. They will be up for the grabs at the upcoming Women’s Hundred 2022 Draft.
For the record, Rodrigues played for the Northern Superchargers team in Women’s Hundred 2021 and has been retained by them for the 2022 season. Likewise, Mandhana has received another contract from her team Southern Brave. Verma was with Birmingham Phoenix, Deepti represented London Spirit, whereas Kaur turned up for the Manchester Originals.
Many fans would know that the Hundred competition is a unique tournament, where instead of overs, there are 100 balls per innings. Each bowler can bowl five or ten consecutive deliveries depending on the captain’s wish.
Because of the huge marketing done by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), the tournament was a success in the United Kingdom. However, not many Indian fans followed the tournament because of time zone problems and no telecast channel in India for the big event.
Twitterati react to Smriti Mandhana and Jemimah Rodrigues getting retained for Women’s Hundred 2022
Twitterati had mixed reactions to the retention made by the teams for the Women’s Hundred 2022. Here are some of the top reactions:
Smriti Mandhana and Jemimah Rodriguez are the only two Indian players retained by their respective franchises in 'The Hundred' women's league.
— Mufaddal Vohra (@mufaddal_vohra) February 22, 2022
BCCI women selectors should call Jemimah for World Cup , just need to leave ego.
— Diwakar¹⁸ (@diwakarkumar47) February 22, 2022
Don’t understand the logic behind releasing Deepti Sharma
— random.cricket.facts (@randomcricfacts) February 22, 2022
Harman carried the Originals last szn and they do this https://t.co/RFnfzhs2E3
— aay (@Kanpur105) February 22, 2022
But current team management didn’t pick Jemimah Rodriguez in the World Cup squad. There’s still time to correct this mistake. https://t.co/MSRCJKvCpj
— Prem Mohanty (@philipbkk) February 22, 2022
Would be exciting to see an auction for Women's IPL in future.
— movieman (@movieman777) February 22, 2022
mandhana❤️❤️🔥
— Winny (@KW22Winston) February 22, 2022
Can't believe some of the players released here. Why did we release Erin Burns and Katie Mack? Also Shafali?! And Harman and Mignon from the Originals too?! https://t.co/ZnFEYUutEG
— Kunal Tolani 🏏 (@Kunal_jt) February 22, 2022
Both are great choices
— Shalini Gupta (@shalini8282) February 22, 2022
World knows how good Jemi is but unfortunately BCCI doesn't. You go girl @JemiRodrigues.♥️ https://t.co/wGYxksdtvJ
— 𝐌𝐞𝐥𝐨𝐧 𝐌𝐮𝐬𝐤 (@MisterRustic) February 22, 2022
