WPL 2026: Happy Kumari Debuts As Gujarat Giants Elect To Bowl Against RCB

2026-01-19 09:15:23

(MENAFN- IANS) Vadodara, Jan 19 (IANS) Gujarat Giants won the toss and elected to bowl against Royal Challengers Bengaluru in the 12th match of the Women's Premier League (WPL) 2026 at the Kotambi Stadium. Gujarat Giants have made two changes to their playing XI, bringing in Anushka Sharma and handing a debut to Happy Kumari. The duo replaces Shivani Singh and senior spinner Rajeshwari Gayakwad.

Gujarat Giants captain Ashleigh Gardner said, "We are going to bowl first. It's awesome to have a home supportive crowd. There will be a lot of RCB fans. But happy to be here. Last year, we started our campaign here against RCB. Hopefully, we get on a roll. We have two changes. Anushka comes in after the hand injury, and Happy Kumari makes her debut. This is a high-scoring venue. Making sure that we keep stumps in play as bowlers. It's a batting-preferred venue, but we have to keep it simple. Keep the stumps in play, and the batters will have to step up."

Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) captain Smriti Mandhana said, "We are just going through the simple things right. The bowlers gave us an extremely good start in the previous game. The batters know their job and are doing it brilliantly. In every game, new players are stepping up, which is really good to see. Oh, I didn't know that. For us, we will just take one game at a time and not think too much about what's happening around. It's a pretty young group that has a lot of energy. Even the overseas players are very young. It gets hard showing up every day with the same intensity when you play 3 games in four days. The way everyone has shown up is really pleasing to see. It's an easy job for me today. We are going with the same XI."

Playing XIs:

Royal Challengers Bengaluru Women: Grace Harris, Smriti Mandhana (c), Georgia Voll, Richa Ghosh (wk), Gautami Naik, Nadine de Klerk, Radha Yadav, Prema Rawat, Shreyanka Patil, Lauren Bell, Sayali Satghare

Gujarat Giants Women: Beth Mooney (wk), Anushka Sharma, Sophie Devine, Ashleigh Gardner (c), Georgia Wareham, Kanika Ahuja, Bharti Fulmali, Kashvee Gautam, Tanuja Kanwar, Happy Kumari, Renuka Singh Thakur

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