Chandigarh’s promising pace bowler Kashvee Gautam has earned her maiden call-up to the national team for the upcoming women’s Tri-Nation ODI series in Sri Lanka involving the hosts and South Africa.

Kashvee had an impressive outing in this year’s WPL with 11 wickets, and emerged the joint-highest wicket-taker among the Indian bowlers with Shikha Pandey. Primarily a new ball bowler, Kashee is also a handy power hitter lower down the order that strengthened her path to a maiden national call-up.

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The Tri-series also marks the return of regular skipper Harmanpreet Kaur who was rested for the home series against Ireland. However, there were a few notable omissions from the squad, with the trio of injured fast bowlers in Renuka Singh Thakur, Titas Sadhu and Pooja Vastrakar, and top-order batter Shafali Verma continued to be overlooked.

Left-arm spinners N Shree Charani and Shuchi Upadhyay, the latter who was the Player of the Tournament at last year’s Senior Women’s One-Day Trophy, are the other new additions to the squad.

The Tri-series commences on April 27 when India will face hosts Sri Lanka and the final is set to be played on May 11. Each team will play four games with the top two teams qualifying for the final.

With the women’s ODI World Cup at home nearing, the series acts as a preparation for the marquee tournament later this year.

India squad: Harmanpreet Kaur (C), Smriti Mandhana (VC), Pratika Rawal, Harleen Deol, Jemimah Rodrigues, Richa Ghosh (WK), Yastika Bhatia (WK), Deepti Sharma, Amanjot Kaur, Kashvee Gautam, Sneh Rana, Arundhati Reddy, Tejal Hasabnis, Sree Charani, Shuchi Upadhyay.