Seasoned Mumbai Indians set their sights on title defence

“Nowadays I know I know what it feels like to win a trophy”, said Harmanpreet Kaur after helping Mumbai Indians to the inaugural Women’s Chief Association title. This year will be another to begin with, wherein she’ll be involved in the weight of being protecting champions. History has it that weight and desires frequently bring out the most excellent in her, and Harmanpreet’s challenge in this WPL will be to induce the same out of her group as well. Plunging into the obscure with a brief turnaround time, Mumbai took everybody by surprise with their five-match winning streak to start the competition.

They brought a different approach to the way the men’s group worked ordinarily as moderate starters but lived up to the wealthy bequest that they set up over a long time. MI’s squad within the WPL was built around demonstrated universal allrounders, each of whom played their portion flawlessly. With their winning centre still intact and in shape, can MI make it two in two?  Where did they wrap up the final season? A five-match winning streak was ended, sending them through to the eliminator, but MI got to be the inaugural champions by beating the Delhi Capitals in the final.

Mumbai’s qualities in final year were in their star all-rounders, and they looked to encourage and reinforce that division by going for Annabel Sutherland at the player sell-off, but couldn’t sign her up. Bringing her in, in any case, would have been included in their now-clear issue of bounty. In any case, MI marked the now-retired South African speedster Shabnim Ismail to back up their pace-bowling unit. To go with the express pace, she brings a wealth of involvement and may be a coordinate swap for Issy Wong, who claimed the tournaments, to begin with a hat-trick final year. Other than that, MI made base-price buys to fortify their turn saves, the standout of which was the marking of the 20-year-old ancient Amandeep Kaur from Haryana.

Squad: Harmanpreet Kaur, Amelia Kerr*, Chloe Tryon*, Hayley Matthews*, Amanjot Kaur, Humairaa Kaazi, Isabelle Wong*, Jintimani Kalita, Natalie Sciver-Brunt*, Pooja Vastrakar, Priyanka Bala, Saika Ishaque, Yastika Bhatia, Shabnim Ismail*, S Sajana, Amandeep Kaur, Fatima Jaffer, SB Keerthana The Mumbai think-tank is known for their canny picks, and this one, at a base cost of INR 10 lakh, was an absolute take. Haryana’s Amandeep Kaur is the left-arm wrist spinner in the competition who bowls “finger turn and wrist spin with rise to control.”

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The 21-year-old Amandeep is coming off a better-than-average residential run where she picked up nine wickets within the Senior Women’s T20 Trophy at a normal of 10.77 and an economy of 4.61, which is driven by her determination within the Senior Women’s Inter-Zonal T20 Trophy. Within the U23 Women’s T20 Trophy that was taken after, Amandeep was the third-best wicket-taker with 15 scalps in seven diversions at a normal of 7.8 and an economy of 4.33. Wounds and accessibility: A few players from other establishments pulled out of the WPL 2024 due to its [close] clash with England’s two-sided visit to Unused Zealand beginning two days after the WPL last on Walk 17. England’s vice-captain, Nat Sciver-Brunt, was in any case picked to not be considered for selection for the primary of the five-match T20I series. She is likely to be available for the entirety of the WPL. The same is expected of New Zealand’s Amelia Kerr. MI’s other English recruit, Issy Wong, wasn’t picked in either of the two white-ball formats and is thus available. Best XI: Hayley Mathews, Yastika Bhatia (wk), Nat Sciver-Brunt, Harmanpreet Kaur (C), Amelia Kerr, Amanjot Kaur, Pooja Vastrakar, Izzy Wong/Shabnim Ismail, Jintimani Kalita, Amandeep Kaur, and Saika Ishaque.