File photo of Parunika Sisodia.© X/@ICC

Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) women’s team assistant head coach Malolan Rangarajan said that the team is aiming to have a couple of camps for the players ahead of the Women’s Premier League (WPL) season three auction to be held this year. RCB on Thursday announced the retention of 14 players, including six overseas, ahead of the WPL 2025 auction, with captain Smriti Mandhana, star batter Ellyse Perry, and wicket-keeper Richa Ghosh headlining the list of retainees of the championship-winning team from this year.

Speaking in a statement by RCB, Malolan said about plans ahead of the WPL 2025 auction, likely to be held in December, “What will happen between now and the auction is that we will have a couple of camps for our players and I would like to mention for the players of interest, which will help us inform creating our shortlist of players for the auction and hopefully even make it a little bit more certain as to who we need to target and who we could have as backups. So, with the auction in December, the plan would be to have a camp prior to the auction and hopefully get the team we are looking for.”

Talking about the idea behind WPL retention lists, Malolan said as a part of the coaching staff, it is important to remember what worked for the team last time on the field and away from it. Also, he emphasised on retaining the team’s core values, both on-field and off-field.

“So keeping those things in mind, we came up with the set of retentions. We have also thought really hard about how we wanted to recruit in the last auction and we brought in a couple of players with experience. So that has held together and given us a good core to go forward with,” he added.

RCB emerged as the champions of the WPL 2024, beating DC by eight wickets in the final.

Retained Players: Asha Shobana, Dani Wyatt, Ekta Bisht, Ellyse Perry, Georgia Wareham, Kanika Ahuja, Kate Cross, Renuka Singh, Richa Ghosh, S. Meghana, Shreyanka Patil, Smriti Mandhana, Sophie Devine, and Sophie Molineux.

Released Players: Disha Kasat, Indrani Roy, Shraddha Pokarkar, Shubha Satheesh, and Simran Bahadur.

All the five Women’s Premier League franchises submitted the list of retained and released players ahead of the 2025 season. UP Warriorz were the only side to retain 15 players, while all the other four sides kept 14 players in their squad. While the list of retained stars was big, Sneh Rana (Gujarat Giants), Veda Krishnamurthy (Gujarat Giants), Issy Wong (Mumbai Indians), Heather Knight (Royal Challengers Bengaluru) and Lea Tahuhu (Gujarat Giants) were among the big names released by their respective franchises. Have a look at the complete list of retained and released players ahead of the 2025 season –

Royal Challengers Bengaluru –

Retained: Smriti Mandhana, S Meghana, Richa Ghosh, Ellyse Perry, Georgia Wareham, Shreyanka Patil, Asha Sobhana, Sophie Devine, Renuka Singh, Sophie Molineux, Ekta Bisht, Kate Cross, Kanika Ahuja, Dani Wyatt

Released: Disha Kasat, Indrani Roy, Nadine de Klerk, Shubha Satheesh, Shraddha Pokarkar, Simran Bahadur, Heather Knight (replaced last year by Nadine de Klerk)

Delhi Capitals –

Retained: Alice Capsey, Arundhati Reddy, Jemimah Rodrigues, Jess Jonassen, Marizanne Kapp, Meg Lanning, Minnu Mani, Radha Yadav, Shafali Verma, Shikha Pandey, Sneha Deepthi, Taniya Bhatia, Titas Sadhu, Annabel Sutherland

Released: Laura Harris, Poonam Yadav, Aparna Mondal, Ashwani Kumari

Gujarat Giants –

Retained: Ashleigh Gardner, Beth Mooney, Dayalan Hemalatha, Harleen Deol, Laura Wolvaardt, Shabnam Shakil, Tanuja Kanwar, Phoebe Litchfield, Meghna Singh, Kashvee Gautam, Priya Mishra, Mannat Kashyap, Sayali Sathgare, Bharti Fulmali

Released: Sneh Rana, Kathryn Bryce, Trisha Poojitha, Veda Krishnamurthy, Tarannum Pathan and Lea Tahuhu

UP Warriorz –

Retained: Alyssa Healy, Anjali Sarvani, Deepti Sharma, Grace Harris, Kiran Navgire, Chamari Athapaththu, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Shweta Sehrawat, Sophie Ecclestone, Tahlia McGrath, Vrinda Dinesh, Poonam Khemnar, Saima Thakor, Gouher Sultana, Uma Chetry.

Released: Lauren Bell, Laxmi Yadav, Parshavi Chopra, Soppadhandi Yashasri.

Mumbai Indians –

Retained: Amanjot Kaur, Amelia Kerr, Chloe Tryon, Harmanpreet Kaur, Hayley Matthews, Jintimani Kalita, Nat Sciver-Brunt, Pooja Vastrakar, Saika Ishaque, Yastika Bhatia, Shabnim Ismail, S Sajana, Amandeep Kaur, Keerthana Balakrishnan

Released: Issy Wong, Fatima Jaffer, Humaira Kazi, Priyanka Bala