Ahead of the upcoming Women's T20 Challenge, West Indies all-rounder Deandra Dottin has said that she wants to be the first to score a century in the Indian T20 competition.
The Women's T20 Challenge will be played from November 4-9 in the UAE and Dottin will be seen representing Trailblazers. The Windies all-rounder will be playing under the leadership of Smriti Mandhana and she would be sharing the dressing room with the likes of Deepti Sharma, Natthakan Chantham, and Jhulan Goswami.
"I am very excited to be playing in the Women's T20 Challenge and also for the Trailblazers. It's been a great effort from everyone - orgsers, IPL and BCCI to pull off the tournament in UAE. As a player we feel very lucky that we are getting an opportunity to play and enjoy our cricket," said Dottin in an exclusive interaction with .
"Well I'm looking to help Trailblazers to win the tournament and also be the first to score a century in the competition," she added.
On October 11, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) had announced the squads and schedule for the upcoming Women's T20 Challenge. Last year's finalist Supernovas will be taking on Velocity in the opening game on November 4.
The tournament will be contested between three teams -- Supernovas, Trailblazers and Velocity. Smriti Mandhana will be leading Trailblazers while Harmanpreet Kaur and Mithali Raj will lead Supernovas and Velocity.
Talking about playing under the leadership of Mandhana, Dottin said: "I rank her (Mandhana) in the top five players in the world right now, to be honest, she's an excellent player and she can take away the game in a flash. I would like to learn how not to get into trouble with having a lot of shots in my book."
The 29-year-old Dottin has played 118 T20Is for West Indies, managing to score 2,565 runs at an average of 26.44. With the ball in hand, she has scalped 61 wickets with an economy rate of 6.27.
Dottin believes that the Women's T20 Challenge is a major boost for the game and she also said that a full-fledged Women's IPL in the future will hold women's cricket in good stead.
"I think Women's IPL is very very important to women's cricket as it shows the interest in women's cricket and growth. Of course, I'd love to play a global T20 league back home as well," Dottin said.
Dottin will head into Women's T20 Challenge with some game time behind her as she recently played five-match T20I series against England.
When asked whether having some game time will give her an edge over other players, Dottin said: "To be honest I'll have a slight advantage but cricket is played on the day and things do happen whereas you can have a long break and come back playing like you never left and that's in you."
"I don't expect rustiness from all players but they might be some here and there," she added.
The squads for all three teams are as follows:
Trailblazers -- Smriti Mandhana (c), Deepti Sharma, Punam Raut, Richa Ghosh, D Hemlatha, Nuzhat Parween, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Harleen Deol, Jhulan Goswami, Simaran Dil Bahadur, Salma Khatun, Sophie Ecclestone, Natthakan Chantham, Deandra Dottin, Kashvee Gautam.
Velocity -- Mithali Raj, Shafali Verma, Veda Krishnamurthy, Sushma Verma, Ekta Bisht, Mansi Joshi, Shikha Pandey, Devika Vaidya, Sushree Dibyadarshini, Manali Dakshini, Leigh Kasperek, Delle Wyatt, Sune Luus, Jahanara Alam, M Anagha.
Supernovas -- Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Jemimah Rodrigues, Chamari Atapattu, Priya Punia, Anuja Patil, Radha Yadav, Tya Bhatia, Shashikala Sriwardene, Poonam Yadav, Shakera Selman, Arundhati Reddy, Pooja Vastrakar, Ayushi Soni, Ayabonga Khaka, Muskan Malik.
( With inputs from ANI )
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