We are just a few hours away from the opening match of the second season of the Women’s Premier League. The Delhi Capitals are all set and ready to face the Mumbai Indians, a side we also faced in the final of the 2023 season.
The season starts in the beautiful city of Bengaluru, where the two finalists from last year will open their campaigns as well as the showpiece women’s franchise T20 competition. The league will also have an opening ceremony ahead of the game, which will see several Bollywood stars, like Shah Rukh Khan, Kartik Aryan, and Varun Dhawan, to name a few.
We have had a few crucial additions to our side ahead of this season, while maintaining most of the core players from season one. Annabel Sutherland, the prodigal all-rounder from Australia, was a marquee buy at the auction, having gone for INR 2 crores. She has been an excellent addition to the side, as she bolstered the list of all-rounders in the squad.
Apart from the 22-year-old, we also acquired the services of Ashwani Kumari and Aparna Mondal, the wicketkeeper-batter who was part of our team in Season 1. Ashwani, on the other hand, is an all-rounder who bats in the lower middle order and is known for her ball-striking skills.
We also retained the entire coaching group, with Jonathan Batty, Biju George, Lisa Keightley and Hemlata Kala. The group having achieved great success in the inaugural season have resumed their work as the season comes closer.
Batty, himself, has been involved in even looking after the progress of the girls over the course of the off-season. Along with him, Delhi Capitals’ Director of Cricket, Sourav Ganguly, has also been involved in helping with the players during the off-season camps. He also joined the team ahead of the opening match.
Captain Meg Lanning will once again assume her role as the leader of the team. “I don’t like the word retirement either. But yeah, it's been nice to be a little quiet, spend a little bit of time at home. Been playing here and there which has been good. I still love playing and I have been looking forward to this competition. So excited that it is here and hopefully I can help Delhi win the title this year,” Lanning said ahead of the season in a candid chat regarding her retirement from international cricket.
Moving on to the season opener, we have got the entire bunch of the Delhi Capitals girls back in the team and training for the first game. The arrivals in the camp started on Feb 14 and the girls even got an experience of training at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru ahead of their opening game.
Star players like Marizanne Kapp, Jess Jonassen, Jemimah Rodrigues, Shafali Verma, Radha Yadav and Alice Capsey have been training with the team in the last few days. The whole team also had a match simulation ahead of their first clash.
We've had a fierce rivalry with the Mumbai Indians side. After the first three clashes last season, the record stands at 2-1 with Mumbai, something that our DC stars would like to make even.
Another thing that we are looking forward to is the second leg of the WPL, which is set to be staged in New Delhi. The Arun Jaitley Stadium, fondly known as the Qila Kotla, will witness four matches of the DC women’s team for the first time. We play our first game at the iconic stadium on March 5, interestingly, against the Mumbai Indians.
For now, the energies and minds of our girls are completely focused on the first leg in Bengaluru, where they would want to start on a high.
