Inexperienced Indian players in focus as Warriorz face Giants

Posted By on February 15, 2025

Who’s playing


Gujarat Giants vs UP Warriorz
Kotambi Stadium, Vadodara, February 16, 2025, 7.30pm IST

What to expect: Teams with inexperienced Indians

Even a total of 201 wasn’t enough to defend for Gujarat Giants in their last game. The six-wicket loss to Royal Challengers Bengaluru exposed their reliance on their four overseas players. Captain Ash Gardner did most of the heavy lifting, both with bat and ball, while Beth Mooney chimed in with a fifty. A familiar issue that has been ailing them for the last two seasons has not been addressed yet: the inexperience in bowling attack. Giants will want their Indian players to step up if they don’t want their campaign to derail from here.

Deepti Sharma’s UP Warriorz, on the other hand, will open their campaign on Sunday and will come in with specific plans to exploit Giants’ weaknesses. But do Warriorz also have a similar problem to Giants? Deepti aside, the rest of the Indian players in the side are inexperienced.

Team news and likely XIs: Athapaththu to open for UPW?

In the absence of Alyssa Healy, Chamari Athapaththu, who played just four games last season, is expected to be their opener alongside Vrinda Dinesh. They do have Alana King, who has been in terrific form with the ball recently, in the mix but Sophie Ecclestone, who has been excellent for Warriorz over the last two seasons, will likely start ahead of King.

UP Warriorz (probable): 1 Chamari Athapaththu, 2 Vrinda Dinesh, 3 Kiran Navgire, 4 Grace Harris, 5 Tahlia McGrath, 6 Deepti Sharma (capt), 7 Uma Chetry (wk), 8 Sophie Ecclestone, 9 Anjali Sarvani/Kranti Goud, 10 Saima Thakor, 11 Rajeshwari Gayakwad/Gouher Sultana

Giants handed West Indies allrounder Deandra Dottin a maiden cap on Friday. The likes of legspinner Priya Mishra, batter Simran Shaikh and seamer Sayali Satghare also made their debuts in the WPL 2025 opener. Giants are unlikely to make changes and will want to give the younger players a longer run.

Gujarat Giants (probable): 1 Laura Wolvaardt, 2 Beth Mooney (wk), 3 Dayalan Hemalatha, 4 Ashleigh Gardner (capt), 5 Deandra Dottin, 6 Harleen Deol, 7 Simran Shaikh, 8 Tanuja Kanwar, 9 Sayali Satghare, 10 Priya Mishra, 11 Kashvee Gautam

Players to watch: Simran Shaikh and Sophie Ecclestone

Simran Shaikh was the biggest buy in the auction with Giants spending INR 1.9 crore on her, with head coach Michael Klinger saying she was brought in to “hit sixes straightaway”. She did exactly that, showing a glimpse of her capabilities in the middle order in the match against RCB. She hit a four followed by an audacious six over extra-cover, during her five-ball stay, in the 19th over off Georgia Wareham.
Sophie Ecclestone is the top wicket-taker in the WPL so far with 27 wickets in 17 innings. She’s also fresh off some good performances in the Women’s Ashes despite England going winless throughout the series. She impressed in both games against Giants last year, but specifically in the first game in Bengaluru, where she dismissed Mooney, Laura Wolvaardt and Gardner to finish with 3 for 20.

Key stats

  • Giants have been on the receiving end of the three of the top-six highest-successful chases in Women’s T20s and each of the top-four successful chases in the WPL.
  • Gardner’s unbeaten 79 on Friday was the second-highest individual score for the Giants in the WPL.

Sruthi Ravindranath is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo

Source: ESPN Crickinfo

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