Women's T20 Challenge 2020 likely to be held in Sharjah from Nov 4 to 9, players to arrive in Mumbai by Oct 18 for a week-long quarantine period

Close to 30 India women's team players will be assembling in Mumbai by October 13 as they prepare for Women's T20 Challenge, the 4-match exhibition event which will be played during the play-offs of Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020 in the UAE. The players will be in quarantine in Mumbai for a week during which multiple Covid-19 tests during the period.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is yet to announce the teams for the Women's T20 Challenge. However, the players, both domestic and international, have been informed about their selection, according to the PTI. The players are likely to depart for UAE on October 22, after which they will go undergo a six-day quarantine like all players competing in the men's IPL.

The Women's T20 Challenge will be played between November 4 and 9 and the players will have to test negative thrice in RT-PCR tests before entering the bio-bubble in the UAE.

The matches are likely to be held in Sharjah, which will host only 12 matches of IPL 2020.

"The players have been informed and a whatsapp group has been created. A few U-19 players have



also been picked. It will give them a lot of exposure," a BCCI official said.

After undergoing quarantine Mumbai and UAE, the players will have less than a week to acclimatise to the conditions, having not played the game for more than six months. The IPL teams arrived in UAE a month in advance.

"It will be a challenge for sure. We have been training individually but the intensity of a team environment cannot be matched. We will quarantine in Mumbai for more than a week and then another week in Dubai. There will be three to four days before the event starts. Obviously, it is not going to be easy to perform," said a player on conditions of anonymity.

The Indian team last played in March.

Amid the raging COVID-19 pandemic, there were question marks over the event until BCCI president Sourav Ganguly assured that it would be taking place during the IPL play-offs.

The BCCI is zeroing in on the foreign players for the competition but they will be mostly from the neighbouring Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and a few from England and West Indies, who haven't landed WBBL contracts.