Six debutants for Royal Challengers Bengaluru while Mumbai Indians hand maiden caps to Carey and Khemnar

Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!

Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) chose to bowl first after winning the toss against defending champions Mumbai Indians (MI) in the opening match of the Women’s Premier League (WPL) 2026 at the DY Patil Stadium. RCB captain Smriti Mandhana called correctly and cited the presence of dew later in the evening as the key reason behind her decision to field first.

RCB took the field without Ellyse Perry and handed as many as six players their debuts. Three of those were overseas recruits – Australian allrounder Grace Harris, England fast bowler Lauren Bell and England left-arm spinner Linsey Smith. Nadine de Klerk, the fourth overseas player in the XI, had featured in just one match during RCB’s title-winning 2024 campaign. The Bengaluru side opted for a line-up packed with allrounders, which left them slightly light on specialist batters. Richa Ghosh was set to bat at No. 4, followed by Radha Yadav at five, while D Hemalatha – formerly of Gujarat Giants – was the only other recognised top-order batter apart from Mandhana.

Mumbai Indians were dealt a blow ahead of the match as Hayley Matthews was ruled out due to illness. In her absence, MI handed a maiden WPL cap to Australian allrounder Nicola Carey, while retaining Nat Sciver-Brunt, Amelia Kerr and Shabnim Ismail as their other overseas players. Matthews’ unavailability also meant a fresh opening combination, with teenage sensation and Under-19 World Cup winner G Kamalini named to open alongside Sciver-Brunt. Kamalini made her senior India debut just last month.

MI also gave a debut to hard-hitting batter Poonam Khemnar, who previously represented UP Warriorz, adding further depth to their middle order as they began their title defence.

Mumbai Indians XI:
Nat Sciver-Brunt, G Kamalini (wk), Amelia Kerr, Harmanpreet Kaur (capt), Amanjot Kaur, Nicola Carey, Poonam Khemnar, S Sajana, Sanskriti Gupta, Shabnim Ismail, Saika Ishaque

Royal Challengers Bengaluru XI:
Smriti Mandhana (capt), Grace Harris, D Hemalatha, Richa Ghosh (wk), Radha Yadav, Nadine de Klerk, Arundhati Reddy, Shreyanka Patil, Prema Rawat, Linsey Smith, Lauren Bell