Five teams, four cities, and 22 matches. In the third season of the Women's Premier League, girls are eager to show their cricket skills again. The first match of the tournament will be played between defending champions Royal Challengers Bangalore and Gujarat Giants. Led by Indian opener Smriti Mandhana, RCB defeated Delhi Capitals in the final last time. The team will try to become the first team to win the trophy for the second time in a row. Mumbai Indians will also have the same opportunity, which won the trophy in the first season. This time all the matches of the tournament will be played in four cities. Last time they were played in Bangalore and Mumbai. The first season was organized in Mumbai. RCB seems to have the upper hand in the match. Gujarat's team has been at the bottom for two seasons. Head coach Michael Klinger and captain Ashley Gardner will come this time to change the fate of the team.

RCB's responsibility rests on captain Mandhana

A lot will depend on the batting captain of the defending champion team, Smriti Mandhana. Due to Sophie Devine not participating, England's Danny Danny Wyatt-Hodge is likely to open with Mandhana. Danny Wyatt did not get a chance for the UP Warriors last year. Hodge is aware of the Indian conditions and has also scored a century in T20 International at Brabourne Stadium Mumbai in 2018. In the five-team tournament, the team that tops the table in the group stage will directly qualify for the final, while the teams ranked second and third will play an eliminator match, the winner of which will reach the final as the second team. The final will be played on March 15 at Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai.

Defending champions may miss Devine.
RCB is a strong contender but the team will miss Sophie Devine and Kate Cross. Both players will not participate due to personal reasons. The team has replaced Sophie with Heather Graham and Kate with Kim Gareth. Australian all-rounder Graham has played five T20 Internationals and taken eight wickets. His compatriot Gareth has played 59 T20s, 56 ODIs, and four Test matches for Australia. Gareth has previously played for Gujarat Giants. She has also taken five wickets in the Women's Premier League. The team may miss spinner Molineux in bowling, who is not on the team this time. However, Asha Shobhana and Shriyanka Patil are capable of handling big responsibilities. Shriyanka is last year's Purple Cap holder. She took four wickets in the final. However, she may miss match practice as she played the last match in the Women's T20 World Cup at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium.

Many teams have the problem of players' injuries. UP Warriors have replaced Australian captain Alyssa Healy with West Indies' Chinelle Henry. Henry has scored 473 runs and taken 22 wickets in 62 T20 Internationals. The record for scoring the most runs in this league is currently held by Meg Lanning of Delhi Capitals. She has scored 676 runs and has six half-centuries to her name. At the same time, Sophie Ecclestone of UP Warriors is at the top of the highest wicket-takers with 27 wickets.

Matches will be held in these four stadiums.

Koutambi Stadium (Vadodara), M Chinnaswamy Stadium (Bengaluru), Bharat Ratna Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Stadium (Lucknow) and Brabourne Stadium (Mumbai).

The teams are as follows.

Mumbai Indians: Harmanpreet Kaur, Amandeep Kaur, Amanjot Kaur, Amelia Kerr, Chloe Tryon, Hayley Matthews, Jintimani Kalita, Satyamurthy Kirtan, Natalie Sciver, Pooja Vastrakar, Sajeevan Sajna, Yastika Bhatia, Sayaka Ishak, Shabnim Ismail, Nadine de Klerk, G Kamalini, Sanskriti Gupta, Akshita Maheshwari.

Royal Challengers Bangalore: Smriti Mandhana, Danni Wyatt-Hodge, Sabbineni Meghna, Asha Shobana, Ellyse Perry, Georgia Wareham, Kanika Ahuja, Shreyanka Patil, Sophie Devine, Richa Ghosh, Renuka Singh,

Ekta Bisht, Kate Cross, Charlie Dean, Pramila Rawat, VJ Joshita, Raghavi Bist, Jagravi Pawar.

Delhi Capitals: Meg Lanning, Jemimah Rodrigues, Shafali Verma, Sneha Deepti, Ellyse Capsey, Annabel Sutherland, Jess Jonassen, Arundhati Reddy, Marijne Kapp, Minnu Mani, Radha Yadav, Shikha Pandey, Tania Bhatia, Titas Sadhu, Sri Charani, Nandini Kashyap, Sarah Bryce, Nikki Prasad.

Gujarat Giants: Ashleigh Gardner, Bharti Fulmali, Laura Wolvaardt, Phoebe Litchfield, Priya Mishra, Dayalan Hemalatha, Harleen Deol, Sayali Satghare, Tanuja Kanwar, Beth Mooney, Shabnam Shakeel, Mannat Kashyap, Meghna Singh, Kashvi Gautam, Deandra Dottin, Simran Sheikh, Danielle Gibson, Prakashika Naik.

UP Warriors: Deepti Sharma, Kiran Navgire, Shweta Sehrawat, Vrinda Dinesh, C Atapattu, Grace Harris, Poonam Khemnar, Sophie Ecclestone, Tahlia McGrath, Uma Chhetri, Saima Thakor, Gauhar Sultana, Anjali Sarwani, Rajeshwari Gaikwad, Arushi Goyal, Kranti Goud, Elana King.

PC Social media