In less than 24 hours from now, the Royal Challengers Bangalore women will be colliding with the Delhi Capitals at the Brabourne Stadium to kickstart their campaign in the WPL. In what is supposed to be a swashbuckling showstopper, the two forces at work will try and get their wheels rolling in the right direction with a victorious start.
With a side that has some big names to come forth, RCB will be banking upon the likes of Smriti Mandhana, their captain, followed by Ellyse Perry, Sophie Devine, Sophie Devine and Richa Ghosh to deliver the payload with the bat in their hands. Talking about their bowling strength, they can also fall back on the hallowed names of Erin Burns, Renuka Singh and Megan Schutt to do the talking.
However, the presence of exciting young names like that of Disha Kasat, Kanika Ahuja, Indrani Roy, Preeti Bose and Sahana Pawar can very well be the game-changer for the Challengers considering the x-factors and unpredictability that they bring to the table.
Led by Meg Lanning, Delhi Capitals will be pinning their hopes on Jemimah Rodrigues, Shafali Verma, Laura Harris, Taniya Bhatia and Marizanne Kapp to get themselves through the fire with the willow in their arms. However, their primary strength lies with their bowling unit that will be spearheaded by Jess Jonassen, Shikha Pandey, Radha Yadav and a flurry of exciting young names.
This is going to be an exciting match-up between the willow and the leather as two teams are willing to put everything on the line as they look forward to start what can be a humdinger chapter in the antiquity of the WPL.
In an interesting match-up between Renuka and Shafali, the former has been making the ripples for all the right reasons of late as he brings in her eclectic brand of medium pace with a keen eye for timbre. More importantly, she has a phenomenal discipline that makes life pretty difficult in terms of trying to open up with the big hits. Shafali Verma can exactly do what Renuka has so far put a stopper on in terms of women’s cricket. A decent all-rounder and more importantly, with a predilection for striking the cherry pretty hard, Shafali and Renuka makes an iconic match-up for both the sides.
