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RCB WPL 2025 Auction Strategy: 3 Prime Targets For Smriti Mandhana, Ellyse Perry And Co

Bhargav Dixit

RCB have four slots to fill. [Source: @FemaleCricket/X]RCB have four slots to fill. [Source: @FemaleCricket/X]

Defending champions Royal Challengers Bangalore have released a total of seven players ahead of Women’s Premier League 2025 auction. Apart from five Indian names, their released list also included England captain Heather Knight and her WPL 2024 replacement in South African all-rounder Nadine de Klerk.

Key Numbers

Criterion
Number
Players Retained14
Indian Players9
Overseas Players6
Slots Remaining4 (0 overseas)
Purse RemainingINR 3.25 crore

RCB Squad Before WPL 2025 Auction

Batters - Smriti Mandhana, Sabbineni Meghana, Danielle Wyatt-Hodge (traded).

Wicket-keeper batters – Richa Ghosh.

All-rounders – Ellyse Perry, Georgia Wareham, Sophie Devine, Sophie Molineux, Kanika Ahuja.

Pacers – Renuka Singh, Kate Cross.

Spinners - Shreyanka Patil, Asha Sobhana, Ekta Bisht.

What Do RCB Need?

Bangalore’s strength lies in a solid top-order and a plethora of overseas all-rounders to choose from. From two absolute legends to two players who’ve been successfully playing the dual role in rival T20 leagues, they have four reliable overseas players capable of winning matches on their own either by batting or bowling in the second category.

What Royal Challengers would be eying tomorrow is a middle-order batter and a pacer, to say the least. It is needless to say that these players will have to be Indian as they’ve already exhausted their quota of having six overseas names.

Players RCB Should Target During WPL 2025

Tejal Hasabnis

Batting at No. 6 on ODI debut against New Zealand in October, Tejal Hasabnis found herself in the middle with the Indian team in a spot of bother in the 16th over. The fact that she top-scored with 42 (64) to contribute in a winning total speaks highly of her credential as a middle-order batter.

Yet to make her T20I debut, a solid WPL season could make that happen, too. Having played three ODIs for India now, Hasabnis could surely carry forward confidence from the same towards having a breakthrough WPL season.

Shradda Pokharkar

In addition to representing RCB thrice last season, Maharashtra pacer Shradda Pokharkar has also played under Mandhana at West Zone. With the captain knowing very well about her offerings, buying Pokharkar and not signing her as a replacement player should be on the franchise’s mind.

Kanika Ahuja

Having missed plying her trade for Bangalore for the second consecutive season due to an injury last year, India all-rounder Kanika Ahuja could also be on their radar. The move, if it comes to fruition, will bolster their spin-bowling options capable of adding value as a batter as well.