On Monday, former Australian captain and newly-appointed UP Warriorz skipper Meg Lanning had alluded to the growing power-hitting aspect in women’s cricket and why the upcoming edition of Women’s Premier League (WPL) could witness a lot of batters clearing the boundaries in both Navi Mumbai and Vadodara.
As the fourth season begins on Friday, many eyes will be on Smriti Mandhana and whether she can lead Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) to their second title victory. The 29-year-old, however, revealed her own personal goals before the new season begins, emphasising on improving the power-hitting aspect of her game and working on her lap shot during the course of the tournament.
“There’s this lap shot that I try to keep playing. I hope I get better at it in the WPL. Reverse sweep is still a work in progress. But there is a conscious effort of hitting sixes for me which I have tried to work on my power-hitting game quite a lot. Hopefully, I can get that power hitting in the WPL without going away from timing the ball as well. So, that’s two things which I really want to work on in terms of this WPL, where I look at, you know, still the fancy shots, I know I’m still a little away from them, but if I could muscle those sixes, if at all I can, I think I’ll be very happy,” Mandhana said at the pre-tournament press conference.
Smriti Mandhana (left) and Harmanpreet Kaur during the Women’s Premier League press conference ahead of WPL 2026. (PHOTO: WPL via X)
While India’s main squad seems settled, the month-long WPL offers other players just on or outside the fringes to challenge the well-known names. Mandhana felt that the door was not closed on any player, with regard to getting into India’s squad for the global event.
“It’s always exciting to see talents coming up in WPL. So I would not ever say that the doors are always closed, and no one is going to get anything out of this. I am sure that if there is an exciting talent and someone has an extraordinary season. I am sure that there will be a place in the T20 World Cup as well.”
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“She (Harmanpreet Kaur) will second that. But again, I mean, it depends on where she will fit. But I am sure that the doors are never closed. And I am sure that everyone knows that if you actually have a good WPL, especially in the T20 format, you always have a chance. Especially the T20 World Cup coming up,” Mandhana said.
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Mumbai Indians captain Harmanpreet Kaur. (Photo: Mumbai Indians via X)
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The 29-year-old returned to the scene where she won the World Cup in November, but admitted that she was already thinking of doing the double by winning the T20 World Cup crown in England in June.
“Winning the T20 World Cup would be great. We all know that we won the World Cup, but there are a lot of things in the team that we need to work on. We really want to sit back and say that we are the best team in the world. We still have a lot of things to improve on. I am sure WPL is going to bridge that gap for us,” she said.