After 21 fixtures across four cities, the third season of the Women’s Premier League (WPL) will conclude with the final between Delhi Capitals and Mumbai Indians at the same place where the same two sides faced each other in the summit clash of the inaugural season. A lot has changed in the women’s game since, especially in the WPL. A close look at the third season would reveal that the competition started in 2023 to give Indian players a platform to showcase their talent has been dominated by their overseas counterparts.
In the inaugural season, where the competition was divided into only two venues in Mumbai, Saika Ishaque became a success story with her 15 wickets across 10 innings. In that season, she was the most utilised bowler from Mumbai captain Harmanpreet Kaur. Among the top five bowlers with most overs bowled, Ishaque and UP Warriorz’s Deepti Sharma were the only two Indians. Season two brought even more hope for Indian bowlers as Delhi Capitals’ Shikha Pandey and Arundhati Reddy joined Sharma on the same list. However, there is only one bowler in that list in the ongoing season with Gujarat Giants’ Kashvee Gautam, bowling 31 overs across nine fixtures.
Amongst the two finalists, Mumbai have used their overseas bowlers the most. The quartet of Shabnim Ismail, Hayley Matthews, Amelia Kerr and Natalie Sciver-Brunt have bowled 132.2 overs amongst themselves. Compared to 41.3 overs by six Indian bowlers combined, which includes the capped and uncapped Indian bowlers. Ishaque, a find of Season one for Mumbai, has bowled only four overs in 2025. For Delhi Capitals, the gulf between overseas and Indian bowlers is not that huge. The overseas contingent, dominated by the likes of Annabel Sutherland, Jess Jonassen and Marizanne Kapp, has bowled 81.4 overs compared to 73.2 overs by the Indian bowlers.
For the bottom two sides, Royal Challengers Bengaluru and UP Warriorz, distribution of overs is also skewed towards overseas internationals. Gujarat Giants, the wooden spoon of the first two seasons, who made it to the playoffs for the first time this year, have been the anomaly. Not only is their most utilised bowler an uncapped 21-year-old Indian (Gautam), but their domestic contingent has bowled 106.2 overs compared to 60.4 from their overseas unit. She has been a revelation of this season.
When it comes to batting, the list of the most deliveries faced this season is unsurprisingly dominated by the overseas batters. Sciver-Brunt has had a season of a lifetime after her women’s Ashes slump in Australia. She has scored 493 runs across nine innings and has faced the most deliveries. Amongst the top five batters with the most deliveries faced in the third season, Gujarat’s Harleen Deol is the only Indian batter. And the difference between the deliveries faced by her and Sciver-Brunt is 123. This means the England international has faced one complete T20 innings and three balls more than Deol. Just like the bowling numbers, Gujarat is the only side where an India player has faced more deliveries than any other overseas player. The situation is even worrisome for uncapped India batters, as amongst them, only Shweta Sehrawat of UP Warriorz has faced more than 100 deliveries in the third season.
There is a completely valid argument to be made that once the playing XI is selected, it is the captain's prerogative to choose bowlers or change the batting line-up as required. However, the Gujarat captain, Ashleigh Gardner, has shown that a balance between that prerogative and giving opportunities to Indian players can be achieved. The likes of Tanuja Kanwar, Priya Mishra, and Sayali Satghare, who play for Gujarat, have already made debuts for India and the opportunities through WPL have been crucial in that regard.
The success of any franchise league in the long term is dependent on how their domestic players perform. Gautam is undoubtedly that find for the Indian system from the third season of WPL. Hopefully, more Indian players join that list next season.