India's best audition for World Cup slots in WPL 2025

BENGALURU : The 2025 Women's Premier League (WPL) gets underway in Vadodara on Friday and the expanding edition of the five-team league is tipped to showcase India's formidable pool of exciting talent over the next four weeks.

Defending champions Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) will clash with hosts Gujarat Giants in Vadodara on Friday in what would be a new beginning for the league, which was confined to two venues in Mumbai in its inaugural edition in 2023.

The 2024 edition was split between Bengaluru and Delhi but the tournament will be held in home-and-away format from Friday.

The likes of Asha Sobhana, Uma Chetry, Shreyanka Patil and Saika Ishaque have earned their India call-ups after match-winning performances in the WPL.

"The improvement of domestic Indian players and national players as well has been incredible to watch," Delhi Capitals skipper Meg Lanning told a virtual press conference this week.

"I've really enjoyed seeing their development and how much they've been getting better just through the opportunity that WPL provides," the former Australia captain added.

With India hosting the women's ODI World Cup later this year, the WPL, despite being a different format, will serve as an audition for several Indian players.

"It was a huge gap to play international cricket after coming from domestic cricket," India and Mumbai Indians skipper Harmanpreet Kaur told Cricinfo.

"WPL has filled that gap ... and because of that, the hard work I, as a captain, had to put in along with the support staff to make the players ready for internationals has reduced."

The newly appointed UP Warriorz captain Deepti Sharma said the WPL provided players with a priceless experience of sharing the dressing room with the best talents.

"When you play with the overseas players in the same team then you get to know how they play, read the game and their patterns," Deepti told Reuters.

"If you play with them (youngsters) in the same team then they get good confidence and nervousness goes down."

The money offered has also been life-changing for many, including some uncapped players.

In the 2025 WPL auction, Gujarat splashed 19 million Indian rupees ($218,800) on an uncapped Simran Shaikh.

"I thought of getting selected in 10-12 lakhs (around one million) but had no hopes to get signed in crores (tens of millions)," the all-rounder said.

RCB captain Smriti Mandhana said the financial stability that the WPL offered to domestic players "was a huge positive."

"It allows them more freedom in their game, enabling them to express themselves better on the field," Mandhana said in the franchise's 'Sports Forward Nation' report.

($1 = 86.8370 Indian rupees)

(Additional reporting by Amlan Chakraborty in New Delhi; Editing by Stephen Coates)