WPL: India’s ODI World Cup win may help league grab more eyeballs

The pathbreaking success of the Women in Blue in the ICC Women’s World Cup last November is expected to increase footfalls at the fourth edition of the Women’s Premier League (WPL), set to begin in Navi Mumbai on Friday, 9 January.

The five-team tournament, to run until 5 February, will open with a marquee clash between reigning champions Mumbai Indians and Royal Challengers Bengaluru at D.Y. Patil Stadium, the same venue where Harmanpreet & Co. created World Cup history.

The first-ever Women’s World Cup for India may have come in the ODI format, but the surge in interest it has created in the upcoming WPL is palpable. What lends the situation added context is that the franchise league will provide vital insight for the T20 Women’s World Cup in June-July in England, in which India’s best showing so far has been a runners-up finish in the 2020 edition in Australia.

Showing a sense of occasion, the MI management hosted a lavish reception for the three Indian teams which won World Cups in the last year-and-a-half earlier this week — the men’s T20 World Cup, the Women’s World Cup and the Blind Women’s World Cup. Now, it’s time for the action to begin, with the opener being billed as a face-off between the feisty India captain and her deputy — Harmanpreet vs Smriti Mandhana.

Speaking at the pre-season press conference on Wednesday, Harmanpreet said: “Whenever I go on the field, I tell my team that I want to win the trophy. This new year starts with the WPL and I have the same energy and excitement going into the tournament. We have the same mindset. We have won two trophies in the last three seasons and we want to play well this season and win the trophy again.”

While the World Cup healed many a heartbreak for the seasoned Harmanpreet, the focus will be also on the prolific Smriti, who reached an international milestone during the recent T20I series sweep against Sri Lanka when she became the fastest to reach the 10,000-run mark among women. The most enduring brand in the women’s game, Smriti hardly put a foot wrong in 2025, and was the second highest scorer in the ODI World Cup with 434 runs.

The upcoming WPL will, among other things, see some leadership changes and smart buys, which the franchise owners expect to reflect in their performance. While MI has ruled the roost and RCB has also won the title once in 2024 in the league’s brief history, Delhi Capitals were bridesmaids, finishing runners-up all three seasons, while UP Warriorz and Gujarat Giants have been rather inconsistent.

Capitals have handed the leadership to 25-year-old Jemimah Rodrigues, marking her first stint as a WPL captain. An aggressive yet smart thinker, Jemimah is riding high ever since her century for the ages in the World Cup semi-final against Australia, replacing Meg Lanning at the helm.

Lanning, who was snapped up by UP Warriorz at the league auction, has been named captain, while the Gujarat franchise has appointed star Australian allrounder Ashleigh Gardner as fulltime captain. Gardner was the third highest run-scorer in the ODI World Cup (328), behind South Africa’s Laura Wolvaardt (Delhi Capitals) and Smriti.

An ambitious experiment of the BCCI, which began with a three-team Challenger experiment, has now turned into a benchmark in women’s franchise leagues, often rated higher than leagues like the Big Bash, The Hundred and WCPL. While the elite of the women’s game have flocked to India at the moment (Australia’s Ellyse Perry being a conspicuous absentee as she pulled out for personal reasons), the tournament has also started yielding dividends in terms of producing domestic talent.

Over then to Navi Mumbai, where YoYo Honey Singh and Jacqueline Fernandez will usher in the event at D.Y. Patil Stadium.