The opening match of the inaugural edition of the Women's Premier League (WPL) slated to be played between Gujarat Giants and Mumbai Indians will have a delayed start. The season opener, which was earlier scheduled to begin at 7:30 PM IST, will now start 30 minutes late at 8:00 PM IST. The toss will take place at 7:30 PM IST at the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai.
"The inaugural game will have a rescheduled start and will commence at 08.00 PM IST on Saturday. The toss will take place at 07.30 PM IST," the BCCI said in a statement.
"The grand opening ceremony which will start at 6:25 PM IST. Adding glitz and glamour to the tournament opener will be Bollywood stars – Kiara Advani and Kriti Sanon. To top it all, singer-songwriter AP Dhillon will be performing some of his musical chartbusters on-stage that is bound to leave the audience enthralled," the statement added.
Meanwhile, Gujarat suffered a major blow as star West Indian all-rounder Deandra Dottin was ruled out of the WPL due to a 'medical situation'. The franchise has named Australian all-rounder Kim Garth as Dottin's replacement. Gujarat had forked out a sum of Rs 60 lakh to acquire Dottin's services for the inaugural edition of the WPL.
Meanwhile, Garth was part of the Australian side that recently clinched the women's T20 World Cup title inn South Africa. The Aussie all-rounder didn't attract any bids in WPL auction and remained unsold.
Not having Dottin for the entire tournament is a major blow for Gujarat. The West Indian all-rounder is vastly experienced when it comes to playing franchise cricket. She was also the part of the West Indies side that won the 2016 T20 World Cup in India.
Gujarat Giants' full squad: Ashleigh Gardner, Beth Mooney (captain), Sophia Dunkley, Annabel Sutherland, Harleen Deol, Kim Garth, Sneh Rana, S Meghana, Georgia Wareham, Mansi Joshi, Dayalan Hemalatha, Monica Patel, Tanuja Kanwer, Sushma Verma, Hurley Gala, Ashwani Kumari, Parunika Sisodia, Shabman Shakil.
Mumbai Indians full squad: Harmanpreet Kaur (captain), Nat Sciver-Brunt, Amelia Kerr, Pooja Vastrakar, Yastika Bhatia, Heather Graham, Issy Wong, Amanjot Kaur, Dhara Gujjar, Saika Ishaque, Hayley Matthews, Chloe Tryon, Priyanka Bala, Humairaa Kaazi, Neelam Bisht, Jintamani Kalita, Sonam Yada.
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