The Indian team, and also the management/selectors did a brilliant job to take them to their first ever World Cup victory. Harmanpreet Kaur also led the side exceptionally well, even when the side suffered consecutive losses, to string a series of wins. Now, come the WPL 2026, all that work, building for the next T20 World Cup in June, in England, starts right now.
While for the players it might just be another T20 league from around the world, it serves as a big purpose for the Indian girls; building the unit, which can help them complete their WC set. They had come tantalisingly close in the 2020 edition, and lost to Australia in the final, but the last edition, the performance was rather flat. All that needs to change now.
Need for pacers
One key area that one should be looking at is, identifying young/raw pacers from all WPL teams, who bowl express pace and can stun the batters. Someone in Jhulan Goswami/Shabnim Ismail mould, that has been missing for a while now. Titas Sadhu had only flattered to disappoint, but now due to injuries she seems to have faded away as well.
Maybe one of the bowlers, who has a bit of a slingy action, is MI’s Nalla Kranthi Reddy. Jhulan, the MI bowling coach has big expectations from her, and maybe she could be the one to watch out for. And of course, there is a lot of room for surprises.
All eyes on players coming back from injury
Three India players are coming back from injuries, and it could be a make or break tournament. UPW’s Pratika Rawal will be seen in WPL for the very first time, pace-bowling all-rounder Pooja Vastrakar has been added to RCB squad, and is coming back after a long hiatus, and so is their retained player — Shreyanka Patil
All have it in them to make it to the T20 World Cup 2026 for India, but again, it only depends on performance. To go even further, it is even more important for Pooja & Patil, who can change the match in course of overs. The 26-year-old Pooja can tonk the ball, and can be a reliable bowler; Patil gets to loop the ball, which can cause trouble. All very important for the Indian team and not just RCB.
The U19 & other young players
Just to remind one and all, the U19 Indian women’s team won the T20 World Cup in 2025. And there is a bunch of some excellent girls, who could be making a mark soon in the WPL season. The ones to watch out for are — G Trisha, Niki Prasad, and G Kamalini. The latter also made her India debut in the series vs SL recently. So, all in all, the task is cut out for the Indians.
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