With the Women’s Premier League (WPL) only days away, captain Harmanpreet Kaur and her deputy Smriti Mandhana have laid out an uncomplicated road-map: bank the WPL experience, win the T20 World Cup in June and, in Mandhana’s words, “sit back and say, ‘yeah, we are the best team in the world’.”
Key points first
• India lifted the ODI World Cup barely six weeks ago.
• The next global assignment is the T20 World Cup in England, starting mid-June.
• Harmanpreet will lead Mumbai Indians; Mandhana heads Royal Challengers Bengaluru in Friday’s WPL opener.
• Both believe that another uncompromising WPL season can iron out the remaining creases in India’s T20 game.
Why the WPL matters
“Winning the T20 World Cup would be great,” Mandhana said. “We won the [ODI] World Cup but there are a lot of things in the team we need to work on… I’m sure WPL is going to bridge that gap for us in the coming years.”
Her point is simple: the domestic-plus-overseas mix of the WPL offers repeated, high-pressure scenarios that mimic international cricket. Do well here and the jump to England feels smaller.
Harmanpreet echoed that theme. “…we are not satisfied with just one World Cup,” she said. “We have so much cricket coming up this year… every time we go to the field we want to go with the best mindset and that winning mindset we have been always talking about.”
From talk to practice
MI, defending champions in both WPL and, more recently, the ODI format, start as favourites again. That dominance is precisely what worries Mandhana, but in a productive way. “It’s always exciting to come back to WPL because the domestic players get to play with the internationals,” she said. “I think every WPL is just getting us closer to [consistent domination].”
The tournament’s compressed schedule—double-headers, quick turnarounds, closely matched sides—forces tactical flexibility. Young Indian players must adapt on the fly, something Harmanpreet believes was missing five years ago.
“Players are not in their comfort zone now,” she said. “They are working really hard, they are playing against overseas players, they are playing with overseas players… Now that gap is not there which we used to feel when they [used to] come for international cricket.”
Selection door still ajar
While India’s core looks settled, Mandhana insisted form in March and April can still overturn reputations. “It’s always exciting to see talent coming up in WPL, so I would never say that the doors are always closed… If there’s an exciting talent and someone has got an extraordinary season, I’m sure there will be a chan”
(The quote tails off; the message is obvious—play well, and England could beckon.)
What the numbers say
• Strike-rate matters: in the last WPL, 8 of the top 10 run-scorers went at better than 130, an indicator for modern T20 batting.
• Economy under seven an over was achieved by only five bowlers; India will want at least two of them in national colours.
• Fielding efficiency jumped by 6% year-on-year, according to team analysts—small margins that often swing World Cup knockouts.
Expert view
Former India coach WV Raman regards the WPL as “the single biggest accelerator of skill for our women’s game”. He points to the rapid rise of right-arm quick Titas Sadhu, fast-tracked after last year’s league. “She wouldn’t have learnt to bowl yorkers at the death that quickly in domestic alone,” Raman said.
Looking ahead
Harmanpreet knows another trophy will invite narratives about dynasties, pressure and expectation. She prefers to keep it quiet. “It’s good to see that not only us, but other players are also coming up and thinking and speaking that we want to be champions all the time. I think that shows how WPL has made a lot of impact on us.”
The captain’s measured enthusiasm mirrors India’s current mood: proud of the ODI title, yet wary of complacency. If the WPL can sharpen finishing skills, deepen the talent pool and, crucially, preserve the “winning mindset”, then India’s ambition of adding the T20 crown looks more than a soundbite.
For now, the clearest message is the simplest: win the moments in March and April, and June might just take care of itself.
