WPL 2024 Preview: India Eyeing on Emerging Talents
WPL 2024: As anticipation mounts for the upcoming Women’s Premier League (WPL) 2024, all eyes are on India’s budding cricket stars.
The second Women’s Premier League (WPL) season is a perfect fit for the Indian squad. The amount of debuts that Harmanpreet Kaur and company handed out during the most recent series against England and Australia demonstrated that they are going through a transitional phase. The WPL will offer another venue to find fresh potential before the T20 World Cup in September and October.
At a pre-season event last week, Harmanpreet, the captain of both the Indian and Mumbai Indians teams, stated as much. “We might give them a chance at the World Cup if we see some good performances in the WPL,” she stated.
The team management and selectors are probably going to pay particular attention to two groups of players. First, there are players with experience playing international cricket who aren’t guaranteed to play for India, such as Sneh Rana, Yastika Bhatia, and S Meghana.
Following Beth Mooney’s injury in the season’s first game, Sneh took the helm for Gujarat Giants. The 30-year-old’s off-spinning all-round ability should prove useful as the T20 World Cup is scheduled to take place in Bangladesh. He bowled admirably in the most recent Test matches against Australia and England.
Yastika would be ready to challenge Richa Ghosh for the keeper position in the Indian squad because he performed well for the Mumbai Indians previous season. Despite not having played for an international team in two years, Meghana is a potent force at the top of the order.
Then there are the players without caps who have demonstrated a lot of promise. The player who was most expensive on this list, Kashvee Gautam, was signed by the Gujarat Giants for a record ₹2 crore. However, the 20-year-old’s ailment has prevented him from participating in the competition.
UP Warriorz paid ₹1.3 crore to select Vrinda Dinesh, who has been one of the best run scorers in domestic cricket for the past few years. Additionally reliable with the bat is Ashwani Kumari (DC), while left-arm wrist spinner Amandeep Kaur (MI) may also be useful.
BCCI focuses on Harmanpreet’s Form and Indian Fielders
Broadly speaking, the Indian team management will also be paying close attention to regular squad players’ fielding standards and Harmanpreet, the captain, and his form. India’s fielding has long been a source of concern, as evidenced by several costly errors in their most recent matches against Australia and England.
During his inaugural press conference as the Indian team’s head coach towards the end of last year, Amol Muzumdar declared that fielding and fitness would not be compromised. However, the players on the field, with the exception of Amanjot Kaur, Jemimah Rodrigues, Shreyanka Patil, and Harmanpreet, left a lot to be desired.
Indian athletes have the chance to interact with the world’s greatest players in a competition such as the WPL, observing their work ethic and learning how to get better. Even if one season might not be long enough to make significant changes, it can nonetheless move things in the right direction.
Additionally, it will be important to monitor Harmanpreet’s at-bat performances. In the T20Is and ODIs against England and Australia, the 34-year-old scored 26, 9, 6*, 0, 9, 5, 3, 6, and 3, respectively. However, she appeared comfortable batting with players like Hayley Matthews and Natalie Sciver-Brunt in the WPL last year. She finished up collecting 281 runs in nine innings, including three hundreds, to help MI win the championship.
It is imperative that the Indian team’s captain and most seasoned batter finds his form and has another successful WPL season as they approach the World Cup.
