Harmanpreet Kaur during GG match - (Source: ScreenGrab/X.com)
On Thursday, January 13, Gujarat Giants locked horns against Mumbai Indians in the WPL 2026 match at the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai. The Harmanpreet Kaur-led side won the coin flip and asked Gujarat Giants to bat first.
The Ashleigh Gardner-led side got off to a mixed start as they scored runs but also lost wickets at regular intervals. Meanwhile, Harmanpreet Kaur was impressed by her side’s performance and turned on her jolly nature.
Harmanpreet Kaur does a random bat check on Ayushi Soni
Notably, after the fourth wicket fell on the 1st ball of the 11th over, debutant Ayushi Soni walked into bat. The nervous 25-year-old was stopped by Harmanpreet Kaur, who wanted to do a random bat inspection. When checked, Kaur was surprised that the bat gauge couldn’t go through the bat.
The moment attracted an animated and shocked reaction from Harmanpreet, who didn’t expect her mischievous act to actually turn out serious. Ayushi was also shocked and, in fact, signalled to the dressing room to quickly bring in a new bat.
However, the umpire corrected the MI players, and it was found out that the check was done incorrectly. The on-field umpire checked it again, and the gauge cleared through the bat. Ayushi was relieved and walked to bat. Meanwhile, Harmanpreet Kaur, in a funny way, gave a kick to Hayley Matthews, who seemed to have pitched the idea to inspect the bat.
Ayushi Soni struggles on her debut
It was not a nice debut for Ayushi Soni as she amassed just 11 (14) and failed to score a solitary boundary. While Soni failed to up the tempo for her team, the Giants' management decided to call her back, and the player was retired out.
It was a rare sight in WPL history that a player was called back without actually throwing her wicket away. Talking about the ongoing match, at the time of writing this article, Gujarat Giants are 153/5 after 18 overs.
