Leading a side gets the best out of me: Delhi Capitals skipper Jemimah
She considers Australia the best women's cricket team in the world right now but Ashleigh Gardner is also spooked by the fact that recently crowned ODI world champions India are well on their way to become a "very hard to beat" side in the coming decade.
Former India star Anjum Chopra believes Harmanpreet Kaur remains the "best person" to lead the women's national team even as debates around captaincy resurface ahead of a busy international season and the upcoming Women's Premier League (WPL).
Less than 24 hours after being retired out, Harleen Deol bounced back with a blistering 64 not out from 39 balls to power UP Warriorz to victory.
Leading international cricketers, including Laura Wolvaardt and India's World Cup hero Deepti Sharma, will go under the hammer at the Women's Premier League auction in Delhi on Thursday, with bidding wars also expected for homegrown Kranti Gaud and Shree Charani.
He said one of the things the team lacked last season or in the last cycle was some explosiveness at the bottom order.
Kamalini, Vaishnavi two new faces in India Women's squad for T20Is against Sri Lanka
Abhishek Nayar was sacked as the Indian men's team assistant coach in April, less than a year into the job.
The Indian Premier League's overall brand value declined by 20 per cent to $9.6 billion in 2025 due to lost momentum in the league caused by tensions between India and Pakistan, and teams adjusting to their squad composition post the auction.
India registered a dominant six-wicket win in the fourth T20I to seal their first-ever women's T20I series victory against England. With the win on Tuesday, the visitors have taken an unassailable 3-1 lead in the five-match series.
India coach Amol Muzumdar credited the landmark achievement of clinching a first-ever women's T20I series win over England to the Women's Premier League, saying it has played an "integral part" in the progress of the players.
On paper, India are overwhelming favourites to win the series against Chamari Athapaththu-led visitors.
The Indian women's cricket team's white-ball home series against Bangladesh next month has been postponed by the BCCI, which is aiming to work out an alternate assignment for the world champion side in the same window.
Indian multinational conglomerate Reliance Industries and Surrey County Cricket Club on Wednesday announced their partnership in The Hundred and expectedly renamed the franchise MI London.
The World Cup winners' medal is the latest addition to Verma's trophy cabinet, which also includes the 2023 Under-19 World Cup, the 2022 Asia Cup, the 2022 Asian Games gold medal and the 2022 Commonwealth Games silver.
Indian all-rounder Deepti Sharma was crowned Player of the Tournament in India's maiden ICC Women's World Cup triumph, says she still cannot believe she bowled the title-winning delivery.
'My parents have the biggest role in what I have become. They always told me that if you dream, dream big.'
Nat Sciver-Brunt and Hayley Matthews carried Mumbai Indians to their second WPL final as their power-packed knocks laid the cornerstone for the team's 47-run win over Gujarat Giants in the Eliminator in Mumbai
An ecstatic Mumbai Indians skipper Harmanpreet Kaur credited her bowlers for robustly defending a modest target of 150 in the WPL 2025 final against Delhi Capitals.
The WPL starts on Friday with a match between defending champions RCB and Gujarat Giants in Vadodara.
The wicketkeeper-batter has been retained by RCB alongside seasoned campaigners like Smriti Mandhana and Ellyse Perry for the next year's competition, and planning is in full swing to get their hands on the elusive trophy.
Australian top-order batter Georgia Voll will replace Chamari Athapaththu in UP Warriorz's squad for the remainder of the Women's Premier League after the Sri Lankan left for national duty.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis hailed India's ICC Women's World Cup 2025 victory, calling it a historic moment for the nation and praising the team for "bringing the World Cup home."
Despite being troubled by a few injuries, Mandhana is happy with the squad at her disposal.
India and Mumbai Indians captain Harmanpreet Kaur believes the upcoming edition of the Women's Premier League (WPL) will play a crucial role in the team's preparation for the ODI World Cup, which India is hosting later this year. She also highlighted the impressive performance of the India U-19 women's team, who recently won their second T20 World Cup title. Mumbai Indians' bowling coach and team mentor, Jhulan Goswami, expressed confidence in the team's composition and the impact of the WPL on women's cricket in India.
The inaugural edition's winner Mumbai Indians will bank on their core group of players while two-time finalists Delhi Capitals will expect fireworks from Shafali Verma when they face-off in the second game of the Women's Premier League here on Saturday. The finalists of the first WPL in 2023, both Mumbai Indians and Delhi Capitals made it to the knockouts in the second edition last year but lost to the eventual champions Royal Challengers Bengaluru in the eliminator and the final respectively. Those defeats were certainly not reflective of how well MI and DC had fared until the knockouts stage, with Harmanpreet Kaur's side finishing second in the points table with five wins in eight matches and Meg Lanning's team topping it with six wins in as many outings. The winners of WPL 2023, Mumbai Indians tend to lean on their core group of players both overseas and Indian and a similar approach can be expected this year, with only a few changes taking place in terms of squad composition. India pacer Pooja Vastrakar, who was grappling with an unspecified injury, was ruled out of the competition and has been replaced by slow left-arm orthodox bowler Parunika Sisodia, who was one of the main performers in India's title-winning campaign in the U-19 Women's T20 World Cup recently. Mumbai Indians have let go of England's Issy Wong, who took the first-ever WPL hat-trick in 2023, after the player lost form and the franchise found the leader of their attack in South Africa's Shabnim Ismail. Among domestic talents, another member of the U-19 T20 World Cup winning squad G Kamalini would be one to watch out for, having finished as the third highest scorer in the competition with 143 runs in seven matches. Apart from a strong leader in Harmanpreet, MI have strong figures from other international sides such as Nat Sciver-Brunt (England), Hayley Matthews (West Indies), Amelia Kerr (New Zealand), as well as South Africans Nadine de Klerk, Shabnim Ismail and Chloe Tryon. While Yastika Bhatia is MI's No 1 wicketkeeper-batter, other Indian players in Saika Ishaque, Sajana Sajeevan, uncapped Akshita Maheshwari and Amanjot Kaur will be expected to play their roles to perfection. On their part, Delhi Capitals will be keen to do one better after finishing as runner-up for two times in a row ever since the competition began. One of the most consistent teams in the competition, the Lanning-led Delhi have strong talent base across departments but the key will be to deliver in crucial matches. All eyes will be on the explosive Indian batter Shafali who has responded to her exclusion from the Indian side with runs in domestic cricket. She forms a lethal opening pair with Lanning at the top, while the likes of Australia's Annabel Sutherland, England's Alice Capsey and India's Jemimah Rodrigues form the core of their middle order. All-rounder Sutherland will hope to draw inspiration from her recent success of having struck 163 in the only Test of the women's Ashes followed by winning the highest individual honour in Australian cricket. While Delhi boasts of three wicketkeeper-batters in India's Taniyaa Bhatia, Nandini Kashyap and Scotland's Sarah Bryce, their bowling looks settled with Marizanne Kapp as the leader of the attack, backed by Australia's Jess Jonassen, India's Radha Yadav and Shikha Pandey as well as Titas Sadhu.
"I didn't even know there was an Indian women's cricket team," said pacer Kranti Goud as she reminisced her journey from Madhya Pradesh's obscure Ghuwara village to the very top of the sport she picked up by chance.
Images from the WPL match played between Royal Challengers Bengaluru and UP Warriorz in Bengaluru on Monday.
Shafali Verma and Jess Jonassen smashed half-centuries as Delhi Capitals handed Royal Challengers Bengaluru a fourth consecutive defeat with a commanding nine-wicket win.
Delhi Capitals vice-captain Jemimah Rodrigues believes the long break between the last league match and the Women's Premier League final has revitalized the team and will work to their advantage in the title clash. The Capitals have qualified for their third straight WPL final after Mumbai Indians were defeated by Royal Challengers Bengaluru in the last league match at Mumbai on March 11.
Australia's Ashleigh Gardner replaced compatriot Beth Mooney as Gujarat Giants' captain for WPL 2025.
Mandhana had led RCB to the WPL triumph last year, the team's first title in franchise cricket.
The IPL's overall valuation fell by 8 per cent to Rs 76,100 crore in 2025.
The third edition of the Women's Premier League (WPL) will be played across four cities - Baroda, Bengaluru, Mumbai, and Lucknow - from February 14 to March 15, 2025.
Sciver-Brunt smashed a 39-ball 57, her second consecutive half-century, after taking two wickets for 26, as MI first bowled out GG for a modest 120 and then chased down the target, scoring 122 for 5 with 3.5 overs to spare.
Beth Mooney smashed an unbeaten 96 as a dominant Gujarat Giants thrashed UP Warriorz by 81 runs in a one-sided WPL 2025 match in Lucknow on Monday.https://www.rediff.com/cricket/special/can-india-win-the-champions-trophy/20250303.htm
IMAGES from the WPL match played between Mumbai Indians and UP Warriorz on Thursday.
Pratika Rawal made 308 runs in seven matches in the World Cup with a century and a fifty before she was ruled out of the semi-finals and final with injury.
'We have got lots of energy within the group and as I said before we are really excited about the opportunity that we have given ourselves to go out there and play our best game.'
Harmanpreet Kaur's quickfire fifty and Nat Sciver-Brunt's fine all-round showing lifted Mumbai Indians to their second Women's Premier League title.
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