3 from Kerala’s Wayanad for WPL 2025, but last season’s Malayali star ruled out

The Women's Premier League (WPL) will begin on Friday, with defending champions Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) set to take on Gujarat Giants at Vadodara.

Kerala had four players representing three franchises going into the third edition. But there was bad news on the eve of the season opener when RCB announced that Asha Sobhana has been ruled out for the season with a knee injury.

The three Kerala players, who will feature in the WPL are Minnu Mani of Delhi Capitals, Sajana Sajeevan of Mumbai Indians and V J Joshitha of RCB. All three players are natives of Wayanad district in north Kerala.

All-rounder Minnu was the first Keralite to represent the Indian women's national team when she featured in the T20 squad for a tour of Bangladesh in 2023.

Big hitter Sajana is another senior international who attained fame from impressive performances in the WPL. She earned her senior national call-up last April.

At 18, Joshitha is the youngest Malayali in the WPL. The pacer was part of India's Under-19 Women's T20 World Cup winning squad in Kuala Lumpur earlier this month.

Asha was joint-second for most wickets in the previous edition with 12 scalps from 10 matches. The 33-year-old Thiruvananthapuram native became the first Indian to take a five-wicket haul in the WPL in a match against UP Warriorz at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru.

The WPL features five franchises namely Royal Challengers Bengaluru, Delhi Capitals, Gujarat Giants, Mumbai Indians and UP Warriorz. The month-long event will feature 20 matches in the league phase, followed by the eliminator and the final at the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai on March 14.

RCB are captained by ace batter Smriti Mandhana, while her national team colleagues Harmanpreet Kaur and Deepti Sharma lead MI and the Warriorz respectively. Australians Ashleigh Gardner and Meg Lanning are the captains of the Titans and Capitals respectively.