Royal Challengers Bangalore

WPL 2023: Best Playing 11 for Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB)

Smriti Mandhana to lead as we look at the strongest predicted playing 11 for Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) Women for WPL 2023.

One of the 5 teams in the Women’s Premier League, the Royal Challengers Bangalore Women would be kick-starting their WPL journey under the able leadership of Smriti Mandhana. Mandhana, the most expensive player in WPL considers Virat Kohli as her idol, and she couldn’t have asked for a better place to start her WPL journey.

RCB, who are often given a tag of chokers basis their performance in IPL would be looking to turn the tides with the Women’s team. They do have a lot of promising players in the form of Smriti Mandha, Ellyse Perry, Richa Ghosh, Renuka Singh, etc. It very much resembles the RCB of 2016. However, unlike the 2016 campaign, they would want to finish as winners this time around. 

The WPL shall begin on March 6th, and we have a couple of weeks left for that. However, we already know the squad RCB Women has for WPL 2023. So, looking at the strengths and weaknesses of each player, let’s look at the strongest predicted playing 11 for RCB Women for WPL 2023. Before that, let’s look at the official squad for RCB Women. 

WPL 2023: Official Squad for Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) Women:

Batters: Disha Kasat & Smriti Mandhana

WKs: Indrani Roy & Richa Ghosh

All-rounders: Asha Shobana, Dane van Niekerk, Ellyse Perry, Erin Burns, Heather Knight, Kanika Ahuja, Poonam Khemnar, Shreyanka Patil & Sophie Devine

Bowlers: Komal Zanzad, Megan Schutt, Renuka Singh, Preeti Bose & Sahana Pawar

Strongest Playing 11 for RCB Women:

Openers: Smriti Mandhana [c] & Indrani Roy

RCB Women have a total of 18 players in their squad. While most of the players are all-rounders, the team shall open with their Captain, Smriti Mandhana. The team doesn’t have a strong second opener to fall back to. So, they can either play Sophie Devine as the opener, or to strengthen the middle-order, they can play Indrani Roy as the second opener. But playing Indrani seems a better option as it strengthens the middle-order.

Middle-order: Sophie Devine, Heather Knight & Richa Ghosh [wk] 

Coming to the middle-order, RCB Women have three solid options in the form of Sophie Devine, Heather Knight, and Richa Ghosh. Sophie Devine is already the World’s Number 5 T20I batter, and at 3 only adds to the team’s strengths. Similarly, England’s Heather Knight and India’s Richa Ghosh form two solid options in the middle-order.   

Finishers: Ellyse Perry, Poonam Khemnar & Kanika Ahuja

Coming to the lower-order, RCB Women have one of the best players in World Cricket, Elysse Perry. Apart from being a solid finisher, Ellyse is a fantastic pacer. She is also the World Number 9 ranked T20I All-rounder. However, barring Perry, RCB Women have decent options in the form of Poonam Khemnar and Kanika Ahuja. 

Bowlers: Megan Schutt, Renuka Singh & Preeti Bose

Coming to the bowling department, RCB have two solid pace options in the form of Megan Shutt and Renuka Singh. While Megan Schutt is World Number 6 ranked T20I Bowler, Renuka Singh is ranked World Number 5 ranked T20I Bowler. It’s a fantastic duo to have, and RCB have done a brilliant job hiring them for 0.4 and 1.5 Cr respectively. However, apart from these two, Preeti Bose is the only good name that RCB can look at. 

WPL 2023 Strongest Predicted Playing 11 forRoyal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) Women: 

Smriti Mandhana [c], Indrani Roy, Sophie Devine, Heather Knight, Richa Ghosh [wk], Ellyse Perry, Poonam Khemnar, Kanika Ahuja, Megan Schutt, Renuka Singh & Preeti Bose

So, that’s about the strongest predicted playing 11 for RCB Women for WPL 2023. The team does have solid match-winners that can turn the match on their heads. However, RCB must be vary of the low-skilled players that they have. If the management is able to extract the best out of these players, RCB can finally say ‘Ee Sala Cup Namde’

Thanks for reading! What’s your playing 11 for Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) Women for WPL 2023? Please email your thoughts to cric8fanatic@gmail.com 


ALSO READ: WPL 2023: Final Official Salary List Breakdown for All 87 Players


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Adesh Kothari

Adesh is an author at Cric8fanatic with over 20 years of experience following Cricket. Cricket to him is like what 'Football is to Lionel Messi', 'Singing is to Lata Mangeshkar', 'Dancing is to Michael Jackson', and what 'Acting is to Clint Eastwood'. Besides his effervescent love for Cricket, Adesh is an MBA by qualification.