NEWS
Follow UsAlyssa Healy. Sophie Ecclestone. Tahlia McGrath. Grace Harris. Chamari Athapaththu. Danielle Wyatt.
Most teams would love to have half these players at their disposal but the UP Warriorz’ squad astonishingly consists of all these individuals, making the franchise arguably the strongest team on paper with respect to the quality of overseas players at their disposal.
The Warriorz, then, have a stacked roster to choose from, but the problem is that you can only fit four overseas players into the starting XI.
At this point in time, Ecclestone, Harris and McGrath are the three players favorites to start in the XI along with Healy, the captain, but ahead of the side’s first game against Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) on Saturday (February 24), the skipper admitted that it’s going to be ‘challenging’ for the think-tank to zero-in on four individuals.
“That’s going to be the challenging part of our season. Knowing the six internationals we have at our disposal and what they can do for our side,” Healy said in a virtual meeting with journalists on Friday (February 23).
“It’s going to be a really difficult conversation for the management and myself as well - as to who will play in the side and what kind of roles they’ll be playing. I think it’s a really good problem to have.”
The signing of Sri Lanka skipper Athapaththu, who was roped-in as replacement for England’s Lauren Bell, has added to the management’s headache. Not least because she is in excellent form, having smashed 552 runs @ 42.46 in the Women’s Big Bash League (WBBL) three months ago.
The presence of Healy and a plethora of other openers makes it a complex task for the management to fit in Athapaththu.
“She’s a great signing for us. It was important for us to have depth in our side with both bat and ball. Adding Chamari to the list of names we’ve already got was a really great opportunity for us,” Healy said of the signing of the Sri Lanka skipper.
But the UP Warriorz captain confirmed that, at the start of the season, it’ll be she who will be opening the batting with an Indian player. However, she didn’t rule out the possibility of Athapaththu coming into the side some time in the season.
“I daresay that it will be myself and probably an Indian player that will open the batting initially. We’ll probably give that combo a red-hot crack,” Healy said.
“Chamari also comes into our playing order, she would likely be in the top-order if she comes in. Last year our middle-order saved us a lot and put us in a great position to win games at crucial stages. It’s going to be difficult to get the balance right, but we’ll see how everything unfolds.”
Down the order, meanwhile, the Warriorz have two trump cards in Deepti Sharma and Ecclestone. Even if you take away the fact that they are both capable batters down the order (Deepti in particular), they are world-class bowlers capable of bowling across phases.
Healy said that the franchise is ‘blessed’ to have at their disposal not one, not two, but three world-class all-rounders, with McGrath also coming into the mix.
“It’s a blessing to have two great all-rounders (in Deepti and Sophie),” Healy said.
“Throw Tahlia into the mix as well, it’s a huge positive for us. From a management point of view, they will bowl four overs in each game I’d assume, so it’s a plus for us. We’ve got a lot of spin options this season, and that should come in handy towards the back end of the competition, knowing that the wickets will become tired.”
Speaking in the same interaction, the franchise’s head coach Jon Lewis said that the Warriorz’ strength in depth in the spin department gives them an edge over the other sides.
Last season, the Warriorz spinners took a whopping 42 wickets, which was the second-highest among all sides in the competition.
“The dominant force in women’s cricket at the moment is spin bowling. We may perhaps be slightly over-reliant on spinners, but I feel that’s probably the one area where, if we get that right, we can take the competition on,” Lewis said.
“In Deepti and Sophie, we have two bowlers who can bowl in any phase of the game, at any time and take wickets. At the moment in women’s cricket, my view as a fast bowling coach is that the fast bowlers are not as effective as the spin bowlers.
“Teams might have more fast bowling options than us. But that doesn’t mean they have a better bowling attack than us.”
In the inaugural WPL edition last season, the Warriorz finished third, losing to eventual champions Mumbai Indians in the Eliminator.
Healy believes the team ‘proved a lot of people wrong’ with their showing last season, and is hopeful that they can go further this time around.
“We learnt last year that we can compete. A lot of people probably wrote us off early and thought the big teams were going to run away with the competition. Our group probably under-performed at times but still managed to come up with wins. To finish third was a huge effort from our part.
“We’ve strengthened ourselves at the auction table. So hopefully we can go one or two better this season and get our hands on the trophy.”
