THIS week the 2025 edition of the Indian Women’s Premier League (IWPL) kicks off, and ahead of the tournament Rookie Me Central will take a look at each squad to highlight a bunch of key players to look out for.

Today’s preview is all about the reigning champions, the Royal Challengers Bangalore.

Last season could not have gone much better for the Royal Challengers Bangalore.

Despite only finishing third after the regular season, they marched their way right through the finals series and to their first title after comfortably defeating Delhi in the final.

And crucially for the Royal Challengers, a fair chunk of that title winning list is back again this season.

They have had some last minute disruptions to their list though. Kate Cross and Sophie Devine have pulled out of the season for injury and personal reasons respectively, with Aussie pair Kim Garth and Heather Graham taking their place in the Royal Challengers’ squad.

When looking at the squad, from an Indian perspective the names do not get much bigger than the side’s captain and star top order batter Smriti Mandhana. She will have the likes of Richa Ghosh alongside her to hopefully for her side get batting innings off to a strong start. Ghosh is mainly a wicket keeper but can make decent scores with the bat.

When it comes to the Indian bowlers in the side, two names in particular stand out – Renuka Singh and Shreyanka Patil. Singh is a dangerous pace bowler while Patil is a spinner, who should really be able to make an impact on the spin friendly pitches generally on offer in India.

When it comes to non Indian members of the squad, Ellyse Perry is the biggest name of the list. It will be interesting to see if she bowls though, with the star allrounder mainly a batter in recent matches.

Someone who will be chomping at the bit to get out onto the spin friendly wickets is Georgia Wareham, who is in really strong form at the moment and will want to show she is just as dangerous as other Australian spinners.

After the way the Ashes went, Danni Wyatt-Hodge and Charlie Dean will both be keen to put that series behind them and have a really strong series for the Royal Challengers.

ROYAL CHALLENGERS BANGLORE 2025 SQUAD

Danni Wyatt-Hodge, Sabbineni Meghana, Smriti Mandhana, Asha Sobhana Joy, Charlie Dean, Ellyse Perry, Georgia Wareham, Heather Graham, Joshitha V J, Kanika Ahuja, Kim Garth, Prema Rawat, Raghvi Bist, Shreyanka Patil, Richa Ghosh, Ekta Bisht, Jagravi Pawar, Renuka Singh