Women’s Premier League springboard ready to launch new stars

Bengaluru, February 22

The second edition of the Women’s Premier League (WPL), beginning here tomorrow with a high-profile match between defending champions Mumbai Indians and runners-up Delhi Capitals, will provide a platform for promising home-grown talents to showcase their potential.

The foreign stars shone brightly in the inaugural edition held in Mumbai, and the Indians will be hoping to hog some of the limelight this year as the tournament takes a multi-city format shape with New Delhi being the other host city.

While DC’s skipper Meg Lanning, who has now retired from international cricket, took the Orange Cap last year for the highest run-getter, the Purple Cap went to Hayley Matthews of Mumbai for taking 16 wickets.

Amid this surge of overseas players, the Indian players generally struggled for consistency and impact in the previous year, but now some of the young domestic stars will be hoping to shine.

Let’s take Shreyanka Patil of Royal Challengers Bangalore for example: Last season, she was a wide-eyed young cricketer who was awestruck to rub shoulders with some of the finest names in women’s cricket. She played seven matches, but the spotlight was understandably on players such as Smriti Mandhana or Ellyse Perry or Sophie Devine. But in the last 10 months or so, Patil has built a reputation of her own. She earned her maiden India cap in both Test and ODIs in December last year, besides making her mark in the Caribbean Premier League for the Guyana Amazon Warriors.

Titas Sadhu of Delhi offers a similar story. Sadhu did not get a single game despite being in the squad but this year the West Bengal player has an upgraded profile. Sadhu grabbed four for 17 against Australia in Mumbai last month, powering India to a rare T20I win over the Aussies.

But then the tournament is not just about contenders, it is also about the trailblazers.