WPL 2025, GG vs RCB Highlights: Richa Ghosh star knock wins opener for RCB; Gardner all-round show goes in vain

Franchise cricket is back on Indian shores, as the Women’s Premier League commences and signals the start of that portion of the calendar in which India’s brightest stars swap out their blue shirts for the multicoloured ones of the teams they represent. The third season of the WPL starts today, with defending champions Royal Challengers Bangalore trying to make a strong start to their title defence, while the Gujarat Giants hope to have a season where they can drag themselves off the bottom of the table, where they have found themselves languishing in each of the first two seasons.

RCB will be captain by Smriti Mandhana, the southpaw superstar guiding the city of Bangalore to their first tournament win across either the IPL or the WPL, with a final victory over tournament powerhouses Delhi Capitals leading them to the trophy. RCB, however, have something of an injury crisis. Ellyse Perry is in a race against time to be fit for the WPL 2025 curtain-raiser, but big-name stars Sophie Molineux and Sophie Devine have already been ruled out. The spin duo of Asha Sobhana (ruled out of the tournament) and Shreyanka Patil (has been injured since October) was key to their title win, meaning it could be a makeshift-looking RCB unit to start with. A lot of expectations of Mandhana and Richa Ghosh, their Indian internationals.

Meanwhile, for the Gujarat Giants, a change in captaincy and coaching staff has been made with the idea of uprooting themselves from the bottom of the WPL table. With only four wins but 12 losses across two seasons, Ashleigh Gardner has stepped in for Beth Mooney, and the Giants also went heavy in the auction to land Simran Shaikh and Deandra Dottin to add some much-needed firepower to the heart of their batting. The lack of six-hitting and batters who can put pressure through boundaries has hampered them in the past. It’s still very much a similar team to those that struggled over the last couple of years, but key for the Giants will be to ensure they have a good start and keep the morale up. Both their seasons saw them string together losses early in the season, which in a short league stage such as the WPL leaves very little time for recovery.

The match will be played at the Kotambi Stadium in Vadodara, another new location as the WPL continues to expand across the country, and this being a home game for the Gujarat Giants might also give them some much-needed energy as they look to start a new chapter in the WPL after two forgettable seasons. At the same time, there will be plenty of motivation within the RCB team: Mandhana has been on fire with bat in hand in recent months, and is capable of showing why she is the best batter in this tournament. The battle of the captains will be a key head-to-head contest: Gardner has a strong record against Mandhana, and this could mean some very interesting tactical battles to get the third edition of the WPL going. Fireworks should be expected either way.