Mumbai Indians allrounder Pooja Vastrakarand and Royal Challengers Bengaluru leg-spinner Asha Sobhana have been ruled out of the upcoming edition of the Women’s Premier League, slated to begin on February 14. MI head coach Charlotte Edwards confirmed the development of Pooja, who played a key part for the franchise in the last two editions of the tournament.
Parunika Sisodia, who was part of the Indian team in U19 Women’s World Cup will replace Pooja in the squad. The 19-year-old was extremely effective, two wickets against South Africa in the final, and three against England in the semis. She was previously a part of the Gujarat Giants squad but the spinner was released ahead of the 2024 edition. Even though she isn’t a like-for-like replacement for Pooja, but Mumbai were heavily interested in the youngster and signed her for the next season.
Railways keeper-batter Nuzhat Parween will replace the injured Sobhana in the RCB squad. Her unavailability is a massive concern for the team management as the likes of Shreyanka Patil and Ellyse Perry are not fully fit as well. Sobhana played an important role in the team in the last edition, clinching 12 wickets in 10 matches at an economy rate of 7.11, which helped her get into the national team.
Like Parunika, Parween too isn’t a like-for-like replacement. She has played five T20Is for India but at RCB, the 28-year-old is likely to be serving the role of a backup keeper to Richa Ghosh. Earlier in the season, she had scored 134 runs at a strike rate of 101.51 for Railways in the Senior Women’s T20 Trophy.
Apart from that, Sophie Molineux, Sophie Devine and Kate Cross are also ruled out from the upcoming season. RCB named Charlie Dean, Heather Graham and Kim Garth as replacements. They will play Gujarat Giants in their opening game of the competition.
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