Mumbai Indians (MI) seam-bowling allrounder Pooja Vastrakar and Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) legspinner Asha Sobhana have been sidelined from the entire WPL 2025 with injuries. Parunika Sisodia, fresh off winning the Under-19 World Cup in Malaysia, and Railways wicketkeeper-batter Nuzhat Parween, will replace them at MI and RCB respectively.
Vastrakar has been a "big player" for MI, as their head coach Charlotte Edwards alluded to during the pre-season press-conference, so filling the void created by her absence could be a challenge. Sisodia, the left-arm fingerspinner isn't a like-for-like replacement for Vastrakar, but her recent form is encouraging for MI: she took five wickets across the semi-final and the final of the Under-19 World Cup, helping India become back-to-back champions.
Akshita Maheshwari, the Rajasthan seam-bowling allrounder, is more of a like-for-like replacement for Vastrakar. In the Under-23 Women's One Day Trophy last season, Maheshwari had finished with 23 wickets, the second-most in the competition, and picked up two hat-tricks: against Mizoram and Odisha.
Asha's unavailability, meanwhile, compounds RCB's troubles. They are also sweating on the fitness of Shreyanka Patil and Ellyse Perry. Asha's 12 wickets in 10 games at an economy rate of 7.11 were vital to RCB winning their maiden WPL title last season.
Parween, who has played five T20Is for India, will be a back-up wicketkeeper to Richa Ghosh. She had scored 134 runs at a strike rate of 101.51 for Railways in the Senior Women's T20 Trophy earlier this season.
WPL 2025 will kick off on February 14, with defending champions RCB taking on Gujarat Giants in Vadodara.
