3 Indian players who didn't live up to the expectations in WPL 2023
Over the last three weeks or so, fans have been witness to some captivating cricket thanks to the inaugural Women's Premier League (WPL). Eventually, Mumbai Indians emerged as the champions after beating Delhi Capitals in the final.
Over the course of the tournament, there were quite a few players, both foreign and local, who put up some sensational performances. Those included Meg Lanning, Harmanpreet Kaur, and Sophie Ecclestone.
There were also a few players who didn't have the best of runs in WPL 2023 and their lackluster showings cost their teams big time. Here, we look at three Indian players who had a disappointing run in WPL 2023.
#1 Smriti Mandhana
Smriti Mandhana, for whom the RCB management broke the bank, had a poor season as she was only able to score 149 runs in 8 innings. Mandhana's highest score was 37 and her strike-rate of 111.19 was also below par.
Mandhana's poor run meant that her team never got the desired start with the bat and were always left with an uphill task. As a result, RCB were only able to win two games in WPL 2023.
#2 Deepti Sharma
Deepti Sharma had a disappointing WPL 2023 season too. She was only able to score 90 runs over the course of the tournament, and at a strike-rate of below 100. Sharma was the designated vice-captain and one of the most important players of UP Warriorz but failed to produce the goods for her team.
With the ball she could only pick up nine wickets and was quite expensive too, conceding runs at almost nine per over. She was nowhere close to her best and that cost her side big time.
#3 Renuka Singh Thakur
Another RCB player who disappointed big time was pacer Renuka Singh Thakur. If Mandhana disappointed with the bat, Thakur did it with the ball.
Bangalore spent big bucks on Thakur but she couldn't really repay that faith. In 6 games, she only picked up one wicket and leaked runs at a rate of 9.54 per over.
Renuka's poor form meant that RCB's other inexperienced bowlers were always under pressure and thus, their bowling line-up never really threatened the opposition.