WPL 2026 | Match 1: MI vs RCB | Preview and Predictions

The 2026 edition of the Women’s Premier League (WPL) will kick off in grand fashion, as defending champions Mumbai Indians open their campaign against a formidable Royal Challengers Bengaluru side looking to start strongly.

Here, we present our preview and predictions for the game.

Women’s Premier League 2026 | Match 1: Mumbai Indians vs Royal Challengers Bengaluru | 19:30 IST, January 9, 2026

The Mumbai Indians enter the tournament as the least changed of the five sides. While others have chopped and changed in multitudes to strengthen their squads, the defending champions have banked on their core, bringing back players in the auction who were crucial cogs in their two title-winning seasons.

In Harmanpreet Kaur, Nat Sciver-Brunt, Hayley Matthews, and Amelia Kerr, on whom they splurged almost half their auction purse, MI have a bunch of match-winners just waiting to explode. If Matthews doesn’t get you, Kerr will. If Kerr doesn’t get you, Sciver-Brunt will. And if all three won’t get you, then the MI and Team India captain most certainly will.

The MI bowling corps is equally formidable as well, with Shabnim Ismail, Saika Ishaque, Matthews, and Sciver-Brunt all boasting talent and experience. That said, the lack of an Indian pacer may become a concern, with the team management having released Pooja Vastrakar to the auction pool.

However, for all the continuity they’re going for, the biggest change for the Mumbai Indians is in the dugout. Out goes Charlotte Edwards, arguably the best women’s coach in the game, who has taken the England women’s national team job. In comes Lisa Keightley, who has her own respectable body of work. Filling in Edwards’ boots will still be a tall order, though, and hitting the ground running at an organisation synonymous with winning will be imperative.

For the Royal Challengers, their biggest challenge this season will be to cope and stay competitive without their star Ellyse Perry. The talismanic Australian all-rounder has been the linchpin and backbone of this RCB side since the inaugural WPL season, having rescued the team time and again with one superlative performance after another. Having withdrawn from the tournament due to personal reasons, Perry has left behind a big hole in the RCB dressing room.

However, RCB have the quality on paper to make up for Perry’s absence. Their bowling attack is arguably the best among all teams in terms of the variety of options they have at their disposal. Linsey Smith and Lauren Bell had excellent campaigns at the recent ODI World Cup, Shreyanka Patil is fit and raring to go after a long injury absence, while Radha Yadav and Pooja Vastrakar are bowlers skipper Smriti Mandhana can turn to at any stage of the game.

Their batting is also formidable, even without the class and power of Perry and Sophie Devine. Mandhana, Georgia Voll, Richa Ghosh, Nadine de Klerk, and Grace Harris form the crux of the batting order, which has the right balance of power-hitting, class, and experience this time for both posting formidable totals and chasing whatever targets they’re handed.

A galaxy of stars kick-start the 2026 WPL season. For the opener, we have World Cup winners going against each other, Aussies taking on Aussies, and star power in every corner of the field. Suffice to say, this is going to be an absolute crackerjack of a cricket contest.

There is genuinely very little between the two sides given the abundance of quality in their camps, but the Mumbai Indians are our slight favourites for the season opener, solely due to the familiarity of their players with each other, which will be a crucial factor. The Royal Challengers Bengaluru, talented as they are, may need a bit more time to get going.

Fantasy XI: Hayley Matthews, Smriti Mandhana (c), Nat Sciver-Brunt, Amelia Kerr, Harmanpreet Kaur, Richa Ghosh (wk), Nadine de Klerk, Pooja Vastrakar, Shabnim Ismail, Shreyanka Patil, Saika Ishaque

Winners Prediction: Mumbai Indians
Venue: Dr DY Patil Sports Academy, Mumbai