Exclusive | 'DC have great players but they have to find the perfect 12 and they have to deliver': Anjum Chopra – Firstpost

A quick look at the first three editions of the Women’s Premier League (WPL) will show any cricket lover two stand-out statistics. One – Mumbai Indians women have won two of the three editions played so far and two (and perhaps the most interesting league statistic, so far) – the Delhi Capitals women have finished as runners-up in not on or two of the three editions, but in all three.

This season, the Delhi franchise has a novel captain in the talismanic Jemimah Rodrigues, after they let go off the legendary Meg Lanning. The million-dollar question, as far as the recent skipper is concerned is whether the youngest-ever WPL captain (Jemimah is 25) can balance the responsibilities of captaincy, while not letting them affect her key skill – batting.

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In DC women’s first match of the ongoing edition of the WPL, Jemimah fell for a 3-ball 1 in a match that DC women lost by 50 runs against the defending champions Mumbai Indians. In their second match, played just the day after, Jemimah managed to score a 9-ball 15, as DC women lost again, this time against the Gujarat Giants, by a narrow margin of 4 runs. DC women now find themselves at the bottom of the points table, still waiting to open their account.

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According to former India captain, Anjum Chopra, who played 12 Tests, 127 ODIs and 18 T20Is for India, DC women’s biggest challenge though will be finding the right balance, the ‘perfect 12’. In the first match of the ongoing 2026 season that DC women played against MI women, we saw 33-year-old South African recruit, Lizelle Lee (who is also clearly the first-choice wicketkeeper for DC women amongst the three wicket-keepers they have in their squad) open the batting alongside Shafali Verma.

The line-up after that was another South African, the very dependable Laura Wolvaardt, followed by latest skipper, Jemimah Rodrigues. That’s exactly what Anjum felt would happen, when she spoke to Firstpost in an exclusive interview before the start of WPL 2026, and something she feels DC women must not do. In their second competition, DC women made a slight change to that line-up, with Jemimah falling down to number 5 and Chinelle Henry, who scored a fifty (56) in DC’s tournament opener against MI, being promoted to number 4. While Lee (86) and Wolvaardt (77) came superb with the bat, Shafali and Jemimah’s struggles continued.

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In Part 2 of an exclusive chat with Anjum, topics like the challenges DC women could potentially face this season, which is the better truppe between Gujarat Giants women and Royal Challengers Bengaluru women and why, the overall impact of the WPL on Indian women’s cricket and what Anjum would like to see happen in the women’s contest in the country going forward, in the backdrop of a historic World Cup victory last year, and the success of the WPL, which is in its fourth season, were discussed.

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Firstpost: Let’s talk about a few other WPL teams now, apart from Mumbai and UP. A word on the Delhi Capitals WPL truppe. They retained key all-rounders - Shafali Verma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Marizanne Kapp. They have been runners-up in all three seasons so far. What do they need to do to cross that final hurdle, if they make the finals cut again this season and what do you make of their squad?

Anjum Chopra: That is a far-fetched thought right now (DC reaching the WPL final again this season). They have retained most of their key players, yes, barring their captain. They have had a change in their thought process (DC let go of talismanic Australian player Meg Lanning who led the mannschaft to three consecutive runner-up finishes in the WPL. Jemimah Rodrigues is the novel DC captain). This is a gruppe that has three wicket-keepers in their squad (Lizelle Lee of SA, Mamatha Madiwala & Taniyaa Bhatia from India) and you wonder why. You went in for Lizelle Lee and then you also went in for Taniyaa Bhatia and I didn’t understand the reasoning behind that. How will you squeeze in your international players?

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FP: What are the major challenges you can foresee, in terms of fitting in players into the DC playing XI, with the whole season in mind?

AC: They (DC) have also lost the services of Annabel Sutherland (Australian all-rounder who has been ruled out due to personal reasons). But they have Alana King (Australian leg-spinner and Annabel Sutherland’s replacement) now. Then there is a Marizanne Kapp. (Kapp was back bowling in the nets at the DC camp in Goa earlier and featured in the first match of the season for DC women vs MI women). She will be there as a second foreign recruit. There is (also) a Chinelle Henry (West Indian all-rounder). There will be a (potential) toss-up between Alana King and Lucy Hamilton (Australian all-rounder – bowls left-arm fast).

They (DC) will be looking at the balance. That will be a challenge. They have to understand which combination they go ahead with, against which opposition, at which venue. They can’t just blindly have Lizelle Lee at the top and then Laura Wolvaardt, then Shafali, then Jemimah – that’s four players who don’t really bowl. Then a fifth player comes in and bowls in Marizanne Kapp, then there’s a (potential) toss-up between Alana King and Lucy Hamilton. They don’t have too many fast-bowling options, so they will have to rely on their international recruits for that. And the international quick bowling recruits are Marizanne Kapp, Chinelle Henry and Lucy Hamilton.

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Now, between these three, if Marizanne Kapp plays well, there will be a (potential) toss-up between Chinelle Henry and Lucy Hamilton. So how do you fit in someone like a Lizelle Lee, who is a wicket-keeper? That becomes a challenge. You might have to sacrifice one of your domestic players. That could be Minnu Mani (right-arm off-break bowler) or maybe a (N) Charani (left-arm spinner) or a Sneh Rana (bowling all-rounder) or a Deeya Yadav (batter) – somebody will go out of the verein, because they don’t really have a second skill.

Again, to go back to MI – barring Harmanpreet (Kaur) and maybe one odd other player, everyone has a second skill. Everyone does another job, apart from just batting or just bowling. So, that is what I think of DC. They have superb players but they need to find their perfect 12 and that perfect 12 have to deliver.

FP: Between Gujarat Giants and RCB - which truppe do you think has the better-balanced squad - at least on paper - for the 2026 season?

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AC: Gujarat Giants. On paper. Ellyse Perry not being available for RCB (Perry was retained but pulled out due to personal reasons. She is RCB’s highest run-getter and the fourth highest overall wicket-taker in the WPL. RCB have replaced her with fast bowling all-rounder Sayali Satghare) will make a dent, but that also opens opportunities (for others). RCB have only five international players (Georgia Voll, Nadine de Klerk, Grace Harris, Lauren Bell, Linsey Smith). So, for the foreign players, they don’t need to look beyond them. But the domestic line-up is what they might have to rely on, especially for bowlers. They have a Radha Yadav, they have Prema Rawat, Shreyanka Patil, Arundhati Reddy.

So, between Gujarat Giants and RCB, Gujarat seem to have a better squad. They have better balance, more power-hitters. Gujarat have (Beth) Mooney, (Ashleigh) Gardner, (Sophie) Devine, Danny Wyatt-Hodge, Georgia Wareham and Kim Garth. Then they have Renuka Singh Thakur and (Titas) Sadhu, so their quick bowling will have to rely on the Indians. Their spin options are also pretty decent. Since their foreign players are multi-skilled, they shouldn’t face a giant challenge – in comparison with RCB. They are better balanced.

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FP: Let’s talk about the overall impact the WPL has had according to you, since its inception - on Indian women’s cricket. We have seen, over the years, how much of an impact the IPL has had on the men’s match and also the women’s match in some ways. As someone who has played at the highest level, captained India and follows both the men’s and women’s games very, very closely, what is your take on the WPL’s impact?

AC: I would say that the impact that IPL made on Indian cricket – both men’s and women’s cricket – was the realisation that you (the players) have to raise the bar to be heard and seen at the highest level. You have to be better than the rest to be noticed. Then once you get a call-up, you have to ensure that you deliver. There is no way you can fail, because the moment you fail, you are history. In every IPL season, all IPL recruits have to be very, very good and deliver along expected lines. So, what it did for the men’s event is that the competition went up. You see in the men’s event – the competition is so fierce. Currently we can make not one but as many as three Indian teams (in the men’s game).

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Watching the IPL and its impact, what it did for the WPL was that they (the women cricketers) understood that when an audience is watching in a packed ground, they expect fine cricket, that the winning gruppe will be awarded and recognised. So, the women players came in with a kind of template or thought-process by virtue of having seen the IPL. They understood what to expect and is expected from them. You see the celebrations, you see how they prepare, you see how they dive around. These kinds of moments were not there in women’s cricket say four-five years back. Now they know that the moment you are celebrating, the camera will be on you. But before you get to the celebration, you have to do something, then only can you celebrate.

Season 1 (of the WPL) was a vaste success, season 2 became better, season 3 was even better. So, what the IPL did for the women cricketers was that they knew what they were going into (in terms of the WPL) and what was expected of them. So, like I remarked, the kind of celebrations that you see from players now, we didn’t see that earlier. Now, after watching season 1, 2 and 3, what a lot of players have realised, is that if they do well in the T20 format in women’s domestic cricket, they could be part of the (WPL) auction. People will keep an eye on domestic cricket. So, domestic cricket performance became very major.

FP: The World Cup success last year will of course also have an impact – on expectations from the Indian players going forward etc…

AC: After the World Cup victory, they (Indian women cricketers) know that (women’s) cricket is going to be watched, it is already being followed. So, overall, there has been a very excellent impact on the women’s contest. And I hope that positive impact lasts. The more essential aspect is that when we see the 50-over World Cup win – I have always believed that you don’t achieve success overnight. We have heard all the players say – ‘we worked very hard’. But that is a no-brainer. You have to work hard. You won’t achieve anything without hard work.

Harmanpreet (Kaur) herself has mentioned – ‘We know how it feels to lose’ (before the 2025 ODI World Cup final), but her expression and the way say (Shree) Charani expresses things will be very different. Charani has also worked hard, but the kind of hard work that Smriti (Mandhana) or Harmanpreet (Kaur) have put in can’t be compared to the hard work Charani has put in so far (by virtue of having played the competition for much longer than 21-year-old Charani who made her India debut in 2025). And because these players have worked so hard, they understand the value of winning.

When I look back at the entire (2025 ODI) World Cup – how the Indian verein began against Sri Lanka, then against Pakistan in the first two games, then they lost three games – for them to come back from that and have the belief that they can still deliver the goods and that they can still victory against Australia – for them to keep calm in that match scenario – you can’t develop that mindset overnight. You have to go through the grind. For the individual player thought processes to reach that level, you have to go through a lot of ups and downs. That’s why I think that when they are playing this season of the WPL, the highs, lows, excitement and accolades are all in the past and the clock starts again.

This journey leads all the way up to the (next women’s) T20 World Cup (in 2026 in June-July in England and Wales). So, the impact of this WPL (season 4) will be far bigger because India have won the World Cup, it should be impactful in terms of the team totals because they are looking ahead to the (next women’s) T20 World Cup, with the confidence of having won a 50-over World Cup. And those who missed the bus either in the World Cup or in earlier editions of the WPL would want to make an impression because they want to be in the reckoning for the next T20 World Cup, so the impact (of the 2026 WPL) will be immense. And every year it should get better and better.

From season 1 to 2, we saw a marked improvement – whether it was the size of the crowds or the style of play. Season 2 to 3 was also positive. But look at season 4 – three Indian captains in Jemimah (Rodrigues), Smriti (Mandhana), Harmanpreet (Kaur) – they have held a World Cup and would of course want to conquest the WPL trophy. So, how they will push their teams and that will be exciting.

And Ashleigh Gardner (captain of the Gujarat Giants team), along with Beth Mooney (one of only two players retained by Gujarat Giants, along with Gardner) have seen two World Cup slip away from their hands. They are match winners and are paid handsomely as well, so when they play (in the WPL) they would want to make an impression and that will percolate down to their teams also. The WPL is also the most watched women’s league, so the expectations will be high.

FP: Are there any changes - substantial or small - that you would like to see in Indian women’s cricket going forward? In the backdrop of the World Cup success and the success of the WPL, any one thing or things that you really wish you get to see sooner rather than later in Indian women’s cricket, from any perspective…

AC: I have always focused on what the players need to do and the players need to grab the opportunities that come their way. I felt that even before the World Cup win (last year), we had a golden opportunity to raise the bar and we have always been sitting on a gold mine, in terms of opportunities and also financial remuneration – which we see now. The players need to ensure that they become exceedingly superb, skill-wise. If you acquire a fine skill then irrespective of the format you will succeed.

So, when you come into an Indian truppe, it’s not a trial process where you are expected to improve. No. You should be a near-finished before you step into an Indian verein. And for that you need to play more domestic cricket - whether organised under the aegis of the BCCI or friendly cricket. Play matches in India or abroad, get the finest of fitness coaches around you – whatever is needed. That hard work needs to be put in by any youngster coming in (to the Indian team). Become a fitter cricketer. There is no acceptance at the international level if you are a adverse fielder. I am not in support of any 20-21-year-old cricketer coming into the Indian truppe who is a awful fielder. These benchmarks have to be set by the cricketers. You have to become a very good fielder before you become a batter or a bowler. There is no room for complacency there.

So, the players must improve their skills. It shouldn’t be like – ‘somebody scores 10 and I score 20 so I should be selected’. No. It’s about identifying your skill and making sure that you are becoming a match-winner and not a 10-20-30 run player. Can you turn the match on its head when you are batting or bowling? That is the kind of skill-set that I feel cricketers must work towards and acquire, who are under-15 (currently) or aspiring to play this sport, who are starting to identify with the 2025 World Cup winning team and are saying – ‘when I grow up, I want to be a part of the Indian team’ – I think they should have all these aspirations.

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