Prolific opener Smriti Mandhana was on Monday named captain of the Indian women's cricket team for this month's three-match home ODI series against Ireland after regular skipper Harmanpreet Kaur was rested.

Also given a break was pacer Renuka Singh Thakur, the BCCI announced in a press release.

The short series against Ireland will begin on January 10 and all three games will be played at Rajkot.Lead pacer Renuka has been rested to ease her workload. File

Harmanpreet had injured her knee during the home series against West Indies last month, forcing her to sit out of the last two T20Is before returning to play three ODIs.

Before that, the 35-year-old had sustained a neck injury during the match against Pakistan in the Women's T20 World Cup in October last year.

Lead pacer Renuka was the Player of the Series in the ODIs against West Indies after taking 10 wickets from three matches.

In the past, a stress fracture of the back had troubled her. The move to rest her for the series against Ireland could be to ease her workload.

The Indian women's team will enter the games against Ireland on a high after recording its first home T20 International series triumph in five years by beating West Indies 2-1 last month.

It then went on to blank the travelling side 3-0 in the ODIs that followed. The 28-year-old Mandhana was in scintillating form during the assignment, notching up three consecutive half-centuries in the T20 Internationals. She also scored two fifties during the ODI series.