Delhi Capitals have suffered a double setback ahead of the run-in to WPL 2026, with 16-year-old batter Deeya Yadav and wicketkeeper Mamatha Madiwala both ruled out through injury. The club moved quickly, signing Punjab all-rounder Pragati Singh and Hyderabad seamer Eddla Srujana at their base price of INR 10 lakh each.
Yadav grabbed headlines last week when, at 16 years and 103 days, she became the youngest player to appear in the competition. Picked against Mumbai Indians in Vadodara, she neither batted nor bowled but did replace Minnu Mani in the XI. Madiwala, by contrast, was still waiting for her first league outing when the injury news landed.
Singh, 22, offers a bit of everything. In the recent Senior Women’s T20 Trophy she was Punjab’s second-highest run-scorer, tallying 143 runs at a strike rate just over 105, and chipped in with eight wickets during the 50-over season. Srujana, 20, has spent time in the Capitals’ net group and made her senior Hyderabad debut in 2023-24. The right-armer has worked her way through age-group sides at home and is regarded by coaches as a skiddy option with the new ball.
The loss of two squad members comes on top of Australia all-rounder Annabel Sutherland withdrawing before the tournament for personal reasons. It leaves Delhi juggling resources at a tricky moment: two wins and three defeats put them fourth on a crowded table, with Royal Challengers Bangalore up next on Saturday evening.
Capitals staff insist the mood remains calm. One member of the support team noted off-record that the youngsters “know the systems” thanks to pre-season camps, so integration should be straight-forward. Even so, asking fresh faces to settle mid-tournament is rarely ideal.
For Yadav and Madiwala the focus now is rehab rather than match-ups. While timetables for their return have not been made public, the franchise says both will remain in touch with team physios and, when fit, re-enter the wider training group.
A blow, yes, but also a chance: Singh and Srujana get the opportunity to show what they can do on the WPL stage, and Delhi must trust their bench depth to keep a play-off push alive.
