Sportstar·India·Monday, September 28, 2026 at 02:28 AM

Why Mumbai Indians needs a back-up opener after its worst WPL Season

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Aditya Padinjat

The off-season has already yielded change for MI, with head coach Lisa Keightley departing the franchise to take up a development role with Cricket Australia. Her replacement, fellow Australian Luke Williams, has experience of winning the WPL with Royal Challengers Bengaluru, and is now tasked with helping Mumbai bounce back from last season’s disappointment.

Updated : Sep 28, 2026 07:58 IST , CHENNAI - 4 MINS READ

MI had a campaign beset by injuries and illness last year, with several key players forced to the sidelines of matches, and it will hope to be dealt a more favourable turn on that front this year. | Photo Credit: WPL/BCCI

The fourth season of the Women’s Premier League (WPL) provided a first for Mumbai Indians.

Having been the most consistent team across the first three seasons of the tournament, the two-time champion faced a season marred by inconsistency, only once managing to notch up consecutive victories.

Its fate was eventually sealed in its final league game against Gujarat Giants; for the first time in the history of the tournament, Harmanpreet Kaur and Co. failed to make the Playoffs.

The off-season has already yielded change for MI, with head coach Lisa Keightley departing the franchise to take up a development role with Cricket Australia. Her replacement, fellow Australian Luke Williams, has experience of winning the WPL with Royal Challengers Bengaluru, and is now tasked with helping it bounce back from last season’s disappointment.

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In truth, many of the issues Williams will hope to change are ones that may be fixed with time. MI had a campaign beset by injuries and illness last year, with several key players forced to the sidelines of matches, and it will hope to be dealt a more favourable turn on that front next season.

A back-up opener

Those fitness issues were particularly troublesome at the top of the order. Hayley Matthews missed the first two matches of the season with a shoulder injury and G. Kamalini was ruled out of the final four matches, forcing Amelia Kerr, S. Sajana, and Amanjot Kaur to bat out of position as openers at different points.

As a result, MI was the slowest-scoring team in the PowerPlay last season, and may want to look for another genuine opener who can step up in case either Matthews or Kamalini is unavailable this season.

If it is to look down the overseas route, it would need to let go of one of its existing overseas players. From its current squad, Milly Illingworth seems the most likely candidate to do so given that she was unable to get a game over the course of the season.

Illingworth, however, has put in some noteworthy performances in the recent Australia A tour of India.

Breaking the dependence

It quickly became during last year’s mega-auction that MI was looking to bring back the bulk of its core from the first three seasons, an endeavour it was largely successful in. It spent nearly 80 percent of its budget on its five most expensive players (Harmanpreet, Nat Sciver-Brunt, Matthews, Kerr, and Amanjot), and also brought back the likes of Sajana and Shabnim Ismail.

Despite last year’s unsuccessful outcome, it is unlikely to move on from the core that has largely performed well for the franchise.

However, it will want to gain more from the rest of its XI, which had precious little involvement at all last season. Poonam Khemnar played seven games but faced only four balls and did not bowl, while Sanskriti Gupta featured five times and bowled eight overs across them. Triveni Vasistha and Saika Ishaque similarly did not bowl more than an over per game in their appearances.

MI could potentially look to use those spots in the squad for players it feels it could extract more value from, and loosen its dependency on its (extremely capable) core.

Current squad: Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Nat Sciver-Brunt, Hayley Matthews, Amanjot Kaur, G. Kamalini, Amelia Kerr, Shabnim Ismail, Sanskriti Gupta, Sajana Sajeevan, Rahila Firdous, Nicola Carey, Poonam Khemnar, Triveni Vasistha, Nalla Reddy, Saika Ishaque, Milly Illingworth, Vaishnavi Sharma.

Mumbai Indians possible releases: Milly Illingworth (0.30 cr), Poonam Khemnar (0.10 cr), Saika Ishaque (0.30 cr).

Published on Sep 28, 2026

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