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Women’s Premier League 2025 looks set to begin in February, with March 9 as the reported date for the final.
WPL 2025 is set to begin next month (BCCI Photo)
The third season of the Women’s Premier League (WPL) is reportedly slated to begin in early February with Lucknow and Vadodara as the host cities.
According to Sportstar, Ekana Stadium in Lucknow will host the first leg of the tournament while the second leg, including the final, will be played in Kotambi Stadium in Vadodara. The report said the tournament is likely to begin on February 6 or 7 with the final on March 9.
“Since there will be 23 games, it will be held in two venues. The idea is to spread the game across the country,” the magazine cited an official as saying.
The two-city pattern has been running for the past two years. The inaugural edition of the tournament in 2023 was held in Mumbai and Navi Mumbai while Bengaluru and New Delhi hosted it in 2024.
The Ekana Stadium is the home of the Lucknow Super Giants in the IPL and would be the same for the Uttar Pradesh-based WPL franchise, the UP Warriorz. It also welcomed India’s match against England in the 2023 ODI World Cup.
The Kotambi Stadium is 20 kilometers away from Vadodara city. It recently hosted its maiden international fixture between Harmanpreet Kaur’s India and the West Indies. It will be closer to home for the Gujarat-based WPL team, the Gujarat Giants.
Last season, Royal Challengers Bengaluru and Delhi Capitals were able to utilize the home advantage to make it to the final. Smriti Mandhana-led RCB had come out on top, winning the franchise its first-ever T20 title. Coincidentally, in 2023, local team Mumbai Indians beat the Capitals to the first-ever WPL trophy.
The Warriorz and the Giants would hope for similar luck to go their way in 2025 after they finished fifth and sixth (bottom) in the table last year.
UP Warriorz Squad: Alyssa Healy (c), Anjali Sarvani, Deepti Sharma, Grace Harris, Kiran Navgire, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Shweta Sehrawat, Sophie Ecclestone, Tahlia McGrath, Vrinda Dinesh, Saima Thakor, Poonam Khemnar, Gouher Sultana, Chamari Athapaththu, Uma Chetry, Arushi Goel, Kranti Goud and Alana King
Gujarat Giants Squad: Ashleigh Gardner, Beth Mooney (c), Dayalan Hemalatha, Harleen Deol, Laura Wolvaardt, Shabnam Shakil, Tanuja Kanwer, Phoebe Litchfield, Meghna Singh, Kashvee Gautam, Priya Mishra, Mannat Kashyap, Bharti Fulmali, Sayali Satghare, Deandra Dottin, Simran Shaikh, Danielle Gibson and Prakashika Naik
