da lvbet： With Perry, Patil and Asha all recuperating from injuries, RCB’s chances once again hinge on in-form Mandhana

da betobet： Sruthi Ravindranath11-Feb-20253:58

‘RCB will be heavily dependent on Mandhana’

Where RCB finished in WPL 2024Champions. Smriti Mandhana-led Royal Challengers Bengaluru beat Delhi Capitals in the final to win their first-ever title. They finished third on the points table in the league stage and won the eliminator against Mumbai Indians to make the final.What’s new in WPL 2025?RCB have been hit by player unavailability and injury concerns heading into the season. Sophie Devine is on a break, left-arm spinner Sophie Molineux is out injured and Kate Cross has withdrawn from the season for injury rehab. Their star allrounder Ellyse Perry also recently sustained a hip injury during the Ashes but she has arrived in Bengaluru ahead of the team’s departure to Baroda. Spinners Asha Sobhana and Shreyanka Patil have been recuperating from injuries and haven’t played international cricket since October 2024. Devine, Molineux, Perry and Asha had all played crucial roles in RCB’s win last year.Related

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RCB have brought in England spin-bowling allrounder Charlie Dean as Molineux’s replacement, while Heather Graham and Kim Garth come in for Devine and Cross.Having released Heather Knight, Nadine de Klerk and Shubha Satheesh among others, RCB acquired four new faces during the auction: Prema Rawat, VJ Joshitha, Raghvi Bist and Jagravi Pawar. Medium pacer Joshitha is fresh off the U-19 Women’s World Cup win, while 20-year-old Bist recently earned her India debut. Legspinner Rawat, who was signed up for INR 1.2 crore at the auction, also showcased her big-hitting abilities in the Uttarakhand women’s T20 league. Offspinner Pawar meanwhile was key in Mumbai’s title run in the Senior Women’s T20 Trophy 2023-24. Before the auction, RCB also traded in England opener Danni Wyatt-Hodge from UP Warriorz.RCB’s likely XI1 Smriti Mandhana (capt), 2 Danni Wyatt-Hodge, 3 Ellyse Perry, 4 S Meghana, 5 Richa Ghosh (wk), 6 Raghvi Bist, 7 Shreyanka Patil/ Prema Rawat, 8 Georgia Wareham, 9 Kim Garth, 10 Kanika Ahuja, 11 Renuka SinghOther players: Ekta Bisht, Charlie Dean, VJ Joshitha, Jagravi Pawar, Asha Sobhana, Heather GrahamSmriti Mandhana has been in terrific recent form•BCCIKey players In the absence of several big names and a few injury concerns, RCB’s chances hinge on captain Smriti Mandhana’s form. Mandhana had a stellar 2024, and has started 2025 with scores of 41, 73 and 135 in the three ODIs against Ireland. She was the second-highest run-scorer for RCB last year behind Perry, with 300 runs in ten innings.Raghvi Bist is a perfect fit to provide the middle-order firepower along with Richa Ghosh. In the third T20I against West Indies in December last year, she ably supported on-song Mandhana and Ghosh by farming the strike and also scoring well-time strokes regularly while coming in at No. 4.Young one to watch: VJ JoshithaA swing bowler who is also a handy lower-order batter, Joshitha had an impressive U-19 T20 World Cup. In the domestic U-19 T20 Trophy in October 2024, she scored 144 runs at a strike rate of 175.60 and followed up with seven wickets in four matches to finish as the highest wicket-taker at the U-19 Triangular Series in December. In the opening match of the Women’s U-19 T20 World Cup against West Indies, she bowled a fiery opening spell, taking two back-to-back wickets in her second over to finish with figures of 2 for 5. She picked six wickets in the tournament.RCB’s league fixturesRCB will play the first match of the tournament, against Gujarat Giants in Vadodara on February 14. They’re then scheduled to play Capitals in a rematch of last year’s final on February 17 at the same venue, before moving to Bengaluru for fixtures against Mumbai Indians, UP Warriorz, Giants and Capitals for the home leg. They will then face Warriorz on March 8 in Lucknow and end the league stage by playing against Mumbai at the Brabourne Stadium on March 11.