It indeed was an unusual season for UPW. They won just two games out of eight. Those two wins were in Navi Mumbai over Mumbai Indians, a double that no team until this season had managed over the two-time champions. But they lost each of their three games in the Vadodara leg to be knocked out.
“We got some momentum when we won those two games [in Navi Mumbai]. Then we came to Baroda and lost Phoebe [Litchfield] after that,” Nayar said at the press conference. “That also impacted the way our team was set up. It was very hard for us to replace someone who had got almost 250 runs by then in the season. In the business end, you want your in-form players to be there. Our No. 3 didn’t look the same post Phoebe. It was hard for us to fill her boots in that regard.”
Despite winning only two matches, UPW were mathematically in contention to make the Eliminator till the last league game of the season. They had to beat DC by at least 156 runs, an improbable task considering it hasn’t happened in women’s T20 cricket – more so given the slower nature of the pitch at the Kotambi Stadium – but they were restricted to just 122. In defending that, UPW dropped four catches, three of Laura Wolvaardt who made a 36-ball 47, and couldn’t capitalise on DC’s middle-order collapse.
One of the problem areas for UPW was their opening slot. Kiran Navgire had come off a superb domestic season but couldn’t replicate her form in WPL 2026 and registered three ducks in her six innings. UPW tried three opening pairs, the second-most by a team in the season. After a couple of low scores for Navgire, they pushed Harleen Deol up for one game before going back to Navgire. In the last two matches of the season, they dropped Navgire and pushed Deepti Sharma to open. Lanning and Deepti added 74 for the opening wicket against Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB), heir best in WPL 2026.
“In T20 cricket, when your top order fires, your team tends to do well. Unfortunately, the way the season went for Kiran, it did not pan out the way it should have,” Nayar said. “When I made the decision to open with Harleen, I felt it wasn’t the right one. When I made the call for Deepti opening, the call was based on numbers – the fact that Lauren Bell doesn’t have great numbers against left-handers.
“It wasn’t like no one’s scoring runs, so send [Deepti to open]. If we would have had Phoebe, maybe she [Deepti] wouldn’t have opened. But because we didn’t have Phoebe, we needed that left-hander to come and take [Bell] on in the powerplay. Is that a long-term solution, I am not sure. That was not a stroke of luck, there was a bit of thought process to win the game and that match-up.
“So it’s one of those seasons where it just didn’t work out. One of those seasons where people did well, but cumulatively we couldn’t succeed. The consistency of all of them doing it together was just two games.”
Lanning, too, had an inconsistent run by her lofty standards but finished as the fourth-highest run-getter after the league stage. She scored 248 runs in eight innings at a strike rate of 125.25 with only two half-centuries. It is the least she has scored in a WPL season.
“I am still thoroughly enjoying my cricket,” Lanning said. “I love playing and coming into teams like this and trying to get the best out of people and trying to get the best out of myself, too. I am very competitive, I like to win and that fire is certainly still there. I’ll be back next year and hopefully a bit longer after that as well.”
But in six innings in WPL 2026, she tallied only 46 runs at a strike rate of 97.87 – she scored 25 off 17 with one four and three sixes in her first game of the season. That resulted in her being dropped in favour of Shipra Giri, a wicketkeeper who plays for Railways in domestic cricket.
“I have been very clear with my communication with her. I don’t really believe that retention guarantees anything for anyone,” Nayar said. “Every cricketer we picked in that dugout or is part of the squad, expects to play every game. But there comes a time where you want to look at your options going forward. We know what Shweta’s done in the past or what she can do. But it didn’t work out for her and if you haven’t got more than 50 runs in the season, you have to look forward and look at the other options.”
S Sudarshanan is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo. @Sudarshanan7
