Toss Royal Challengers Bengaluru chose to bowl vs Mumbai Indians
The Ellyse Perry-less RCB handed as many as six debuts – three of those being their new overseas recruits: allrounder Grace Harris, fast bowler Lauren Bell and left-arm spinner Linsey Smith. The fourth overseas player, Nadine de Klerk, played one game in their title-winning campaign in 2024.
RCB’s squad was loaded with as many as five allrounders, leaving them light on batting. Richa Ghosh was listed to bat at No. 4 and Radha Yadav at five. Mandhana aside, the only other pure batter in the mix was D Hemalatha, who previously represented Gujarat Giants.
MI were without the unwell Hayley Matthews. They instead handed a maiden cap to Australia allrounder Nicola Carey, with Nat Sciver-Brunt, Amelia Kerr and Shabnim Ismail being their other overseas players.
Matthews’ absence means they’ll also likely have a brand new opening pairing. Teenage sensation and Under-19 World Cup winner G Kamalini, who made her India debut last month, was slotted in to open with Sciver-Brunt on the team sheet.
Poonam Khemnar, the hard-hitting batter who previously represented UP Warriorz, was MI’s other debutant besides Carey.
Mumbai Indians: 1 Nat Sciver-Brunt, 2 G Kamalini (wk), 3 Amelia Kerr, 4 Harmanpreet Kaur (capt), 5 Amanjot Kaur, 6 Nicola Carey, 7 Poonam Khemnar, 8 S Sajana, 9 Sanskriti Gupta, 10 Shabnim Ismail, 11 Saika Ishaque
Royal Challengers Bengaluru: 1 Smriti Mandhana (capt), 2 Grace Harris, 3 D Hemalatha, 4 Richa Ghosh (wk), 5 Radha Yadav, 6 Nadine de Klerk, 7 Arundhati Reddy, 8 Shreyanka Patil, 9 Prema Rawat, 10 Linsey Smith, 11 Lauren Bell
