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Why DC Is Playing With 5 Overseas Players In WPL Match Vs RCB?

Arnav Chopra

DC vs RCB (Source: @wplt20/X.com)DC vs RCB (Source: @wplt20/X.com)

The fourth match of the Women’s Premier League (WPL 2025) is going on between Delhi Capitals Women (DC-W) and Royal Challengers Bengaluru Women (RCB-W) at the Kotambi Stadium in Vadodara. However, one thing that is making headlines is the Delhi Capitals’ side, consisting of five overseas players.

How Can Delhi Capitals Field 5 Overseas Players?

In the fourth match of the WPL 2025, RCB skipper Smriti Mandhana won the toss and opted to bowl first against Meg Lanning’s Delhi Capitals. While RCB made a tactical change and brought in left-arm spinner Ekta Bisht into the team, replacing leg-spinner Prema Rawat, the Capitals side, on the other hand, made two changes in the form of Marizanne Kapp and Jess Jonassen getting fit and coming into the XI straight away after missing the first game.

However, the major highlight was both overseas players replaced Alice Capsey and India’s Under-19 Women’s World Cup winning captain, Niki Prasad, in the 11. This garnered a bit of attention as with the inclusion of both Kapp and Jonassen, the Capitals now had five foreign players.

So, many fans and followers of the game started questioning the inclusion of the fifth foreigner on their side. However, putting all the doubts to rest, the WPL rules permit the teams to have an extra foreign player into their 11 if that particular player is from an associate nation. For example, in this specific game, Delhi already had Sarah Bryce.

However, with Sarah being an overseas player from an associate nation, she is counted towards the domestic player category, allowing the Capitals to field five foreign players. Despite all the confusion, the rules permit all the regulations regarding having an extra foreign player, which Capitals fully utilized to their potential.

What The WPL Regulations State

“A Franchisee shall not name more than 4 Overseas players in its starting XI for any Match. A Franchisee may, however, name up to 1 Overseas player from Associate Nations in its starting XI for any match, who will not be considered as an Overseas player for that Match. To clarify, if a Franchisee includes 2 Overseas players from Associate Nations in its starting XI for a match, then 1 of these players will not be considered as an Overseas player while the other player will be considered as an Overseas player.”

Additionally, the four foreign players that constitute this 11 are:

  1. Meg Lanning (Australia) – Full Member nation
  2. Marizanne Kapp (South Africa) – Full Member nation
  3. Annabel Sutherland (Australia) – Full Member nation
  4. Jess Jonassen (Australia) – Full Member nation
  5. Sarah Bryce (Scotland) – Associate Member nation

Talking about the game, RCB outclassed DC batters and courtesy of some brilliant bowling, DC were restricted to just 141.