Kamalini played all five of MI’s matches in the tournament so far, where they won two and lost three, scoring 75 runs in 77 balls with a best of 32. As wicketkeeper, she had effected seven dismissals.
Unlike Kamalini, a keeper-batter, Vaishnavi is a left-arm spinner who made her international debut in the T20I series against Sri Lanka in Visakhapatnam and Thiruvananthapuram last December and picked up five wickets including a couple of two-wicket hauls. Crucially, she kept things tight in those five games, returning an overall economy rate of 6.26.
Vaishnavi had gone unsold at the WPL auction, held in late November, and has now been acquired by MI for INR 30 lakh. Kamalini, meanwhile, had gone to MI for INR 1.60 crore after starting at a base price of INR 10 lakh. With Kamalini unavailable, MI have Rahila Firdous, the Madhya Pradesh cricketer who is yet to play a WPL game, as their only wicket-keeping option.
MI have won the WPL twice in its three seasons but have had a patchy season so far. They are still at No. 2 on the points table behind Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB), who have won all five of their matches so far. MI are joint on points with UP Warriorz (UPW) and Gujarat Giants (GG), and play their next match on Tuesday evening against Delhi Capitals (DC), who are bottom of the table at this stage.