The Mumbai Indians won the inaugural edition of the WPL by defeating Delhi Capitals in the WPL Final 2023. The inaugural WPL 2023 season saw several individual performances that took the tournament by storm. Here’s a playing 11 that has been made out of them.
Best playing XI of WPL 2023:
Openers – Shafali Verma and Yastika Bhatia (wk)
Shafali Verma and Yastika Bhatia were amongst the best openers in WPL 2023. While Shafali scored 252 runs at a strike rate of 185.29 for the Delhi Capitals, Yastika returned 214 runs at a strike rate of 112.04.
Middle Order – Hayley Matthews, Natalie Sciver-Brunt, Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Grace Harris and Dayalan Hemalatha
The duo of Hayley Matthews and Natalie Sciver-Brunt performed brilliantly in the tournament and captain Harmanpreet Kaur barely put a foot wrong throughout the season. Talking about Grace Harris and Dayalan Hemalatha, they partnered together to form a destructive finishing combination and excelled in that role too.
Bowlers – Issy Wong, Deepti Sharma, Shikha Pandey and Saika Ishaque
Issy Wong finished the tournament with 15 wickets in 10 games including the only hat-trick of the tournament. Partnering her in the seam attack is Shikha Pandey, who took 10 wickets in the tournament at an economy rate of 6.59. Deepti Sharma made her presence felt and bowled the difficult overs with the ball. Saika Ishaque bagged 15 wickets at an economy rate of 7.00. One would think an Indian callup isn’t far away for her.
Best playing XI of WPL 2023: Shafali Verma, Yastika Bhatia (wk), Hayley Matthews, Natalie Sciver-Brunt, Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Grace Harris, Dayalan Hemalatha, Issy Wong, Deepti Sharma, Shikha Pandey, Saika Ishaque (12th player: Shreyanka Patil).