Women's T20 Challenge 2022: Teams, venue, schedule and all you need to know

Women's T20 Challenge 2022: Here is your guide to the three-team and four-match long tournament hosted for women cricketers by BCCI as part of promoting women's cricket in the country through the IPL

Women’s IPL has been in demand for almost two years now and the demand gained vigorous momentum after the success of The Hundred’ Women’s edition last year in England. However, all those demands have so far borne no fruit and the only outcome has been the re-introduction of the three-team and four-match long Women’s T20 challenge, a token tournament to showcase women representation in the richest cricket league in the world. 

After being dropped for the 2021 edition due to the Covid-19 outbreak, the tournament returns this year with the matches being played at the same time as the IPL Playoffs but at a different venue. Here’s all you need to know about the Women’s T20 Challenge 2022

Which are the teams participating in the Women’s T20 Challenge 2022?

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced that Harmanpreet Kaur, Smriti Mandhana and Deepti Sharma will lead the three teams Supernovas, Trailblazers and Velocity respectively. 

These three teams will compete in the Women’s T20 Challenge 2022 to be crowned champions at the end of the tournament.  

Who are the previous winners of the Women’s T20 Challenge 2022?

The First Season

The first edition of the Women’s T20 Challenge was played in 2018 where only an exhibition game was held between two teams named IPL Trailblazers and IPL Supernovas at the Wankhede Stadium ahead of Qualifier 1 of IPL 2018. The match was won by the Supernovas led by Harmanpreet Kaur. 

The three-team tournament 

In 2019, the tournament was extended to become a three-team tournament with the number of matches being increased to three with the matches being played at a separate venue from the IPL Playoffs. Supernovas won the tournament by beating Mithali Raj led Velocity in the final by four wickets. 

When the Women’s T20 challenge found sponsors 

In 2020, along with the IPL being suspended due to Covid-19, this tournament was also suspended. For the first time, it found sponsors and it was called Jio Women’s T20 Challenge. But Just like the IPL started in UAE, this tournament too was played i UAE at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium from November 04 to 09, coinciding with the IPL 2022 Playoffs. 

The tournament was won by IPL Trailblazers who were led by Smriti Mandhana. They stopped the Supernovas from completing a hat-trick by defeating them in the final by 16 runs. 

In 2022, for the first time, even the token representation of women in IPL was scrapped as the BCCI found it better not to complicate things, which were already hugely complicated because of IPL being postponed in May 2021 due to the Covid outbreak. 

How many overseas players are allowed in each team for the Women’s T20 Challenge 2022?

Much like the Indian Premier League, even in the Women’s T20 Challenge, four foreigners are allowed to be a part of the Playing 11 of any side. 

What is the schedule for the Women’s T20 Challenge 2022?

The BCCI announced that the tournament will be played from May 23 to May 28, 2022, at Pune’s MCA stadium.

Date	Time	Match
23-May-22	7:30 PM	Trailblazers vs Supernovas
24-May-22	3:30 PM	Supernovas vs Velocity
26-May-22	7:30 PM	Velocity vs Trailblazers
28-May-22	7:30 PM	Final

At which venue will the Women’s T20 Challenge 2022 be played? 

All four matches of the Women’s T20 Challenge 2022 will be played at the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium in Pune. This was also one of the ven ues for the IPL 2022 where 15 matches of the league were scheduled to be played. However, two of Delhi Capitals’ matches were later shifted to Mumbai due to Covid-19 related issues with the team.  

When and Where can you watch the matches of the Women’s T20 Challenge 2022? 

Just like the IPL, the broadcast rights of the Women’s T20 Challenge remain with Star Sports and hence all the four matches will be telecast and live-streamed through Star Sports and Disney Plus Hotstar respectively. The timing of all the four matches, except the second one, is from 07:30 pm IST. The second match, which coincides with Qualifier 1, will be played from 03:30 pm IST. 

What are the squads like for the Women’s T20 Challenge 2022?

Supernovas	Trailblazers	Velocity
Harmanpreet Kaur (c)	Smriti Mandhana (C)	Deepti Sharma (C)
Taniya Bhatia (VC)	Poonam Yadav (VC)	Sneh Rana (VC)
*Alana King	Arundhati Reddy	Shafali Verma
Ayushi Soni	*Hayley Matthews	*Ayabonga Khaka
Chandu V	Jemimah Rodrigues	K.P.Navgire
*Deandra Dottin	Priyanka Priyadarshini	*Kathryn Cross
Harleen Deol	Rajeshwari Gayakwad	Keerthi James
Meghna Singh	Renuka Singh	*Laura Wolvaardt
Monica Patel	Richa Ghosh	Maya Sonawane
Muskan Malik	S. Meghana	*Natthakan Chantham
Pooja Vastrakar	Saiqa Ishaque	Radha Yadav
Priya Punia	*Salma Khatun	Aarti Kedar
Rashi Kanojia	*Sharmin Akter	Shivali Shinde
*Sophie Ecclestone	*Sophia Brown	Simran Bahadur
*Suné Luus	Sujata Mallik	Yastika Bhatia
Mansi Joshi	S.B.Pokharkar	Pranavi Chandra

Note: Players with * infront of thier names are ovreseas stars