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Follow UsThe second edition of the Women’s Premier League is less than 24 hours away, and like the inaugural edition, there are plenty of names to keep an eye on.
While we have the usual suspects in Ellyse Perry, Meg Lanning, Nat Sciver-Brunt, etc. - it is time to look at some of the names who’d want to light up the WPL like never before.
The only player in this list to have been part of the WPL before. She represented the Gujarat Giants in the first season and plied her trade predominantly as a bowling all-rounder. Having played four games for them, she conceded runs at over 11.5 RPO, the highest for any bowler in the season (min. 10 overs). And she was hardly able to contribute with the bat as well, scoring just 28 runs in four innings.
Sutherland has had a bit of a turnaround since we last saw her play in the tournament. A Test 100 in the Ashes, a strong all-round performance in the WBBL where she scored nearly 300 runs to go with the 23 wickets, and to cap it off, she came up with an impressive showing in India as well.
Walking into the Delhi Capitals side, she’ll bring a different dimension to last year’s finalists in all three departments. She’ll strengthen their death-overs bowling and will also give them an additional option to use in the powerplay and the middle overs. With the bat, she will be expected to shoulder the bulk of the middle-order’s responsibility with her hard-hitting abilities.
A name we’ve all been waiting for, Chamari Athapaththu will finally be a part of the WPL bandwagon with the UP Warriorz signing her as a last-minute replacement for Lauren Bell.
She’s entering the WPL on the back of a mindblowing 2023 - a year that saw her team win their first-ever white-ball series against England. On a personal level as well, she was the Player of the Tournament at the Women’s Big Bash League having scored 552 runs for Sydney Thunder and was also nominated as the T20I captain of the year by the ICC for finishing the year with 470 runs at a healthy strike rate of 130.9 in T20Is.
The experience of playing every women’s franchise league around the world, Athapaththu will have a thing or two to say to her naysayers with the bat in hand. The task will be cut out for her, for she’ll be fighting for a spot in the top-3 with Danni Wyatt, Shweta Sehrawat and Vrinda Dinesh.
UPW fans will be hoping that the veteran southpaw comes up with match-winning performances for them to pave their way to their maiden final appearance.
Kathryn is an all-rounder in a similar mold. A middle-order batter who can more than just ‘bowl a bit’, one would be very surprised if she does not start for the Gujarat Giants this season. She has 1020 runs in T20Is including eight fifties. Add to that, she has 37 wickets at an average of 15, further highlighting her all-round capabilities.
Why do we say that?
She was awarded the ICC Women’s Associate Player of the Decade in 2020 when she was just 23! And if that’s not enough, she was ranked third in the ICC’s T20 All-rounder rankings a year later. Kathryn’s already been a part of the Manchester Originals in The Hundred, and this would be a great opportunity for her to represent Scotland at the WPL as well.
The veteran pacer will be playing her maiden WPL season this year. After going unsold in the auction, the New Zealander was roped in by the Gujarat Giants to replace the injured Lauren Cheatle.
Cheatle, 25, had to skip the WPL to recover from a medical procedure she underwent to remove skin cancer from her neck.
With an international career spanning 80 T20Is over 13 years, she will bring in a much-needed wealth of experience to the relatively inexperienced Giants’ pace attack. She is also New Zealand’s second highest wicket-taker in WT20Is.
She was also one of only three Kiwis to feature in the first-ever exhibition match in 2018. After the recent update on Kashvee Gautam’s injury, the onus on Tahuhu to carry this pace attack will grow multifold.
Under helpful conditions at the Chinnaswamy, expect the White Fern to cause a bit of trouble for batters with her pace. And watch out for those searing yorkers!
The Gujarat Giants finished last in 2023 and Lea Tahuhu will hold the key if they are to improve on their performances this year.
The Pretorian youngster is yet another late entrant to the WPL, as she was signed by the Royal Challengers Bangalore to replace Heather Knight.
Knight, the English skipper, decided to skip the WPL to make herself available for the tour of New Zealand, which is scheduled to begin two days after the WPL final - on the 19th of March.
The 24-year-old was the only Proteas player to feature in the ICC ODI Team of the Year in 2023, after a phenomenal year with the bat and ball. She finished the year with 16 wickets at 16.7 and 180 runs at 45.
Most recently, she was a part of the South African side that toured Down Under for an all-format series, and looked in decent hitting and bowling form.
Her ability to hit the long ball will bolster the RCB middle-order, which is reeling from Knight’s unavailability and Kanika Ahuja’s injury. And her all-phase bowling skills will reinforce RCB’s thin pace bowling reserves and a strong showing from her would go a long way in paving her side’s road to the final.
A name we haven’t heard in a while, Sophie Molineux could be a name that ends up surprising the most in the upcoming season.
Making a comeback from two back-to-back career-threatening injuries - a stress fracture in her foot and a ruptured ACL - she last represented Australia over two years ago in October of 2021.
The Victorian had had a near-perfect career till then and will be keen on making a statement in what would be her first major white-ball stint since her comeback.
An all-rounder by trade, she is a solid middle-order option with the bat and an effective slow left-armer with the ball. She seemed at ease in the recently concluded Test against South Africa, which is remembered for Annabel Sutherland’s fantastic double ton. Molineux finished the game with a handy 33 coming to bat in at #8 and a miserly spell that saw her concede only 11 runs in her 10-over spell.
The experience of being Melbourne Renegades’ youngest captain ever and the urge to get back on the playing field could be motivation enough for Molineux to see her side do much better than what they did in 2023.
