Opinion | Why This Women's Premier League Is Different - And More High-Stakes Than Ever |
Watching a Women's Premier League (WPL) match in the ongoing season is a very interesting exercise. After all, everything has changed for the Indian cricketers and by extension for their respective franchises. If you thought you were imagining things when you saw the likes of Harmanpreet Kaur, Deepti Sharma, Smriti Mandhana, Jemimah Rodrigues, Shafali Verma and others have an extra spring in their steps, don't fret, you are not the only one. What you saw is probably real. After all, this is the first edition of the WPL that the Indian cricketers have entered as world champions. They could be forgiven for thinking that they can walk on water - such was the enormity of their achievement last year. So, another very interesting angle that has now been added to WPL viewership, thanks to the added lens of the World Cup triumph, is that of assessing just how far the able-bodied Indian women's game has come.
Historically, most Indian fans, even those who followed cricket closely, would be able to name maybe two or three prominent Indian female cricketers. The likes of Diana Edulji, Shantha Rangaswamy, Anjum Chopra, Jhulan Goswami and Mithali Raj would usually make that cut. However, in the run-up to WPL 2026, along with the "star names", many people have also been curious about the likes of Shree Charani, Richa Ghosh, Sneh Rana, Pratika Rawal, Harleen Deol, Amanjot Kaur, Kranti Gaud, Radha Yadav and others. All of them might not have become household names just yet, but they are being followed by virtue of being World Cup winners. And the WPL is giving them the opportunity to catapult themselves into that category - much like the IPL did for the likes of Ravindra Jadeja, Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik Pandya, Rishabh Pant, Suryakumar Yadav and others.
Meanwhile, every single field movement of the World Cup "stars" like Jemimah, Deepti, Harman, Shafali and Smriti is being put under the microscope, reviewed, analysed, dissected, criticised, commented on and sometimes appreciated. It wouldn't be unfair to point out that perhaps for the first time in the history of Indian women's cricket, the star able-bodied female cricketers are being viewed through the same fan lens as the male stars. For years, the likes of Sachin Tendulkar,........