(Cricket news) The inaugural season of the WPL has been incredible. The cricket on display has been entertaining and people have been watching the tournament and following it as well. The main objective of the WPL was the development of women’s cricket in India which hasn’t happened. Every year the IPL has a couple of breakthrough players but this WPL season it hasn’t been the case. Possibly the only uncapped Indian player who has knocked the door for the international selection has been Saika Ishaque. 

The Indian skipper Harmanpreet Kaur and seamer Shikha Pandey have had good tournaments but they are experienced international players and a performance like this was expected from them. Yastika Bhatia and Harleen Deol who are in the Indian T20 squad but not in the playing XI have both had decent tournaments. However they haven’t done enough to put everyone on notice yet. In the top 10 run scorer list there are only 2 Indians and in the top 10 wicket takers list there are only 3 Indians. The skill gap between Indian and foreign players was clearly seen in all areas of the team.

Indian domestic players who are pure batters like Simran Shaikh, Shweta Sehrawat, Amanjot Kaur, Humaira Kazi, Taniya Bhatia, Sushma Verma and Disha Kasat were made to play as far down as number 8. There were pure bowlers like Jintimani Kalita, Arundhati Reddy, Mansi Joshi and Poonam Yadav who sometimes didn’t bowl a single over and rarely finished their quota of 4 overs. A lot of that is because there are so many all-rounders in the Women’s game. Almost all of International players are all-rounders which means that their ability is much better than Indians.

That is something that will eventually get better once the players adjust to the level. The pressure of so many people watching may have gotten into the heads of the uncapped Indian players. The good thing is that now when they come into the international circuit they will be ready. Players like Shreyanka Patil, Parshavi Chopra, Kanika Ahuja, Asha Shobhana, Dayalan Hemalata and Kiran Navgire, who have shown glimpses of quality will be looking to burst onto the scene next season. The important thing till then will be to keep up that level in the domestic tournaments.

Also read: WPL 2023: Top 10 players of the group stages