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Mumbai Indians captain Harmanpreet Kaur is hopeful about lifting the Women's Premier League title for the second time in the upcoming season.
The third edition of the women's T20 tournament will be held in four cities - Baroda, Bengaluru, Lucknow, and Mumbai. The tournament will kick off on February 14 at the newly built BCA Stadium in Baroda. In a high-octane season opener, Gujarat Giants (GG) will square off against defending champions Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB). In the previous season, the champions of the inaugural season finished second in the standings and stood in a comfortable spot to defend their title. However, back-to-back defeats in the playoffs derailed their journey to the final. Harmanpreet expressed hope of reclaiming the title in the upcoming season and told ANI, "The tournament is very important for us. Everyone is practising well. The camp is going well, and we are very excited for this season. Hopefully, we will win the trophy again." With hopes of adding another trophy to their cabinet, Harmanpreet is aware the journey won't be easy, considering the balance that the rest of the teams have found. "All teams appear to be balanced. I think this season we will see exciting games, and there won't be any easy games for us," she added. While voicing her opinion about the impact of WPL, Harmanpreet believes the competition has served as a platform for women cricketers to improve. "Since the arrival of WPL, women's cricket has been improving because before, hardly 15 to 20 women cricketers got the chance to play top-level cricket. But now there are a lot of young players who get to play with and against international cricketers. I think the WPL platform is helping a lot of players, especially the young cricketers," she said. In the upcoming season, Baroda will host a total of six matches before the action shifts to Bengaluru, where RCB will play their first home game against the formidable Mumbai Indians at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium on February 21. The final leg of the tournament will unfold in Mumbai, with the iconic Cricket Club of India (CCI) hosting the last two league matches and the two high-stakes Playoff games. Mumbai Indians will conclude the league stage with back-to-back home games against Gujarat Giants and Royal Challengers Bengaluru on March 10 and 11, respectively. On their quest for glory, Mumbai Indians retained a strong core, including skipper Harmanpreet Kaur, West Indies star Hayley Matthews, England's Nat Sciver-Brunt, and New Zealand's Amelia Kerr. The retained players also included Amandeep Kaur, Amanjot Kaur, South Africa's Chloe Tryon, Jintimani Kalita, Keerthana B, Pooja Vastrakar, Saika Ishaque, Sajana Sajeevan, South African pace veteran Shabnim Ismail, and Indian wicketkeeper-batter Yastika Bhatia. During the mini-auction, Mumbai Indians added four players to complete the 18-member squad by getting South African all-rounder Nadine de Klerk and Madhya Pradesh all-rounder Sanskriti Gupta and Rajasthan pacer Akshita Maheshwari in addition to Kamalini. MI WPl 2025 squad: Harmanpreet Kaur (captain), Amandeep Kaur, Amanjot Kaur, Amelia Kerr, Chloe Tryon, Hayley Matthews, Jintimani Kalita, Keerthana Balakrishnan, Natalie Sciver-Brunt, Pooja Vastrakar, Saika Ishaque, Sajana S, Shabnim Ismail, Yastika Bhatia, Nadine de Klerk, G Kamalini, Sanskriti Gupta, Akshita Maheshwari. (ANI)
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