New Delhi: Following the release of England fast-bowler Lauren Bell by UP Warriorz ahead of the 2025 Women’s Premier League (WPL), head coach Jon Lewis has expressed that there remains a possibility of her re-entry into the team through next month’s player auction.
Lauren, capped in all three formats for England, had been picked by the side in the first-ever WPL auction in 2023 but never managed to play a game for the franchise. Lewis also remarked her release ahead of the 2025 WPL auctions wasn’t down to the playing conditions in India. “It’s more around the skill sets that we’re looking for. Lauren’s a brilliant death bowler and she’s a work in progress in the Power-play. So, we’re looking for someone who can potentially bowl in the power play and potentially bat as well.”
“So, that would be something we’re looking at. But also, I wouldn’t count out someone who’s a really out-and-out Power-play bowler as well as an out-and-out overseas talent. But also, what I would say is Lauren would probably still be the sixth overseas player with the shape of our squad.”
“So, just to keep our options open at the auction, I think that is really important. Maybe that when we get to the auction, we think actually Lauren is the best person to come back into that slot and we might still have the option as well,” said Lewis in a virtual press conference after UPW announced their retained players.
Though Lewis acknowledged that not retaining Lauren gives them the option to look at lots of different cricketers, he did state that the workload of England and Australia players after featuring in women’s Ashes will be a factor in deciding who they will bid for in the auction.
“There is a genuine concern from us as a franchise around having the workload that the players will be under coming off the back of the Ashes series; so we need to consider that as well. We need to think about where people’s workloads are because the players are playing a lot more cricket now than they have done in the past.”
“To keep our options open with that space alongside the experienced cricketers that we have is wise. So we haven’t targeted any one individual at the moment, but we’ll keep watching what’s happening around the cricket world and we always do and make our minds up closer to the auction time.”
Apart from uncapped wicketkeeper-batter Laxmi Yadav, India U19 Women’s T20 World Cup winning duo of pacer S. Yashasri and leg-spinner Parshavi Chopra. Parshavi had picked four wickets in the WPL 2023 games she played for the team, before warming the bench for the entire 2024 season.
“That’s really tough, as we put a lot of hard work into all of our young Indian cricketers. As a franchise, we’re really trying to build the franchise from the foundation up. We started two years ago with UP Warriors in the WPL and we are still a new franchise and it’s very embryonic.”
“So actually to have young cricketers who are exciting talents and having to release them is tricky. Unfortunately, Parshavi hasn’t shown anywhere near the same form that got her into the team in WPL season one. She struggled a little bit and so what I do think is that Parshavi will come again.”
“She’s got the qualities, spins the ball both ways as a wrist spinner in women’s cricket and at a good pace. So when she develops and keeps working hard at her game, she will come again to WPL. As I said, with all the other young cricketers that we have with us, we’re really trying to grow that core of young Indian players to be long-standing players for a good period of time to come,” elaborated Lewis.
He also offered the same reasoning behind not retaining Yashasri, who picked just a wicket in the lone WPL game she played in 2023. “Again with Yashasri, we’ve put a lot of time and effort into her and I think she has developed but very slowly so far. Again, still a very young cricketer, and I imagine she’ll come again or may well get picked up by someone else in this WPL.”
“She has got some really nice attributes for fast bowlers. She’s obviously tall, she gets a good bounce and she can bowl at a good pace. The role that we’d like her to play, or would have liked her to play for the UP team, she hasn’t really been able to get into playing eleven at the moment because of how she’s been performing across domestic cricket, and also how she’s been performing in and around our training,” he said.
“So we decided that we needed to create some space in our squad. Again Yashasri is a really good young cricketer and a lovely girl. We’ve had to use her spot for potentially bringing someone else in,” added Lewis.
Batter Vrinda Dinesh had earned a big payday when UPW roped her in for INR 1.3 crore last year. Though Vrinda didn’t get WPL 2024 on fire before being ruled out by a dislocated shoulder, Lewis said retaining her was quite a no-brainer and that the team is backing her to come good next year.
“She’s a really talented young player. It’s as simple as that. We spent good money on Vrinda and we prioritised getting her in last year. She picked up an injury from diving in the outfield. My sense is that she would have grown into last year and she was a big miss for us. That was a really unfortunate injury and we really believe in her talent and she’s a really talented cricketer.”
–IANS
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