New York:(IANS) Shebani Bhaskar is skippering the USA Women’s National team which has embarked on a tour of Australia with an eye firmly on the 2020 ICC World Twenty20 to be held in Australia in 2020.

Chicago based Shebani, who originally hails from Chennai and boasts a family of athletes, is excited to play for Team USA and in the team’s first international tournament in five years.

23-year-old Shebani Bhaskar was just 17 when she played in the 2011 ICC Women's World Cup qualifiers. She scored 72 against Zimbabwe and helped the US win their only match of the tournament. Shebani is a wicketkeeper and plays the role of part-time bowler in domestic cricket circuit.

Now, the 3-week tour of Australia is her first test as skipper. "Her playing that high level of cricket consistently will really push the team to step up their game, and we know that she can carry the team with the support of the team members," Bhaskar's team-mate Nadia Gruny says as quoted by ESPN.

During this developmental tour of Oz, the team will spend time at the National Cricket Centre in Brisbane, working with some of the best coaches in cricket before traveling to Sydney. The team will play a variety of T20 and 50-over matches against QLD and NSW.

The women’s squad with quite a few South Asians names: The squad: Shebani Bhaskar (Captain), Sugetha Kalyanaraman, Erica Rendler, Onika Wallerson, Nadia Gruny, Samantha Ramautar, Sindhuja Reddy, Claudine Beckford, Neha Anand, Sara Farooq, Uzma Iftikhar, Candacy Atkins, Anahita Arora and Rabia Shahid.