WPL 2026: Gujarat Giants elects to field first against Royal Challengers Bengaluru

Navi Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], January 16 (ANI): Gujarat Giants have won the toss and decided to field first against Royal Challengers Bengaluru in the Women's Premier League (WPL) 2026 at the DY Patil Stadium on Friday.
In the ongoing season, Royal Challengers Bengaluru are leading the points table with two consecutive victories. Bengaluru are having four points with a positive NRR of 1.964. Gujarat Giants are placed third with two wins and one loss. Giants are having four points with a positive NRR of 0.105.
During the toss, Royal Challengers Bengaluru captain Smriti Mandhana said, "Tosses are never in your control. I think it's good to experience different situations early in the tournament. If you keep bowling first initially and then later have to bat first, it helps. I'm happy with it. The wicket has been pretty even in terms of batting first or fielding. If we play good cricket, the toss won't matter as much. It's more about continuing the same things. Doing the basics right. The work ethic in this team has been really good. Everyone is working extremely hard. I see a lot of girls hitting the gym, and it's been hard for our coach to get everyone out of the nets, even after practice - which is always a good sign. So it's about keeping all of that intact till the end of the season."
She added, "It really depends on the situation. We don't want to label it as one particular way of playing. It depends on how the situation is and how well we're timing the ball. With Grace (Harris), you don't really need to tell her how to bat, she bats the way she bats. For all of us, it's about executing what we plan. If we need to play the anchor role, we should be able to do that too. We want to play positive and aggressive cricket, but I wouldn't say that's the only way we're going to go forward. We're going in with the same team."
After the toss, Gujarat Giants skipper Ashleigh Gardner said Shivani Singh will make her WPL debut.
"We're going to have a bowl tonight. I think nothing really changes for us in terms of process. Over the last couple of games, it's shown that it's a used wicket. With a harder ball, the spinners do get a little bit out of it as well. For our bowling group, it's about taking early wickets and then trying to restrict them to a chaseable total. It's quite hard to defend at this ground, so ultimately we want to keep them to as little as possible and then let our batting do the talking at the end," Gujarat Giants captain Ashleigh Gardner said.
"Our batting has been great, no doubt, but there are definitely areas with the ball where we can improve. That's always the case. It might sound cliche, but it's about sticking to what we do really well. Of course, you consider the opposition, but it's more about keeping things simple. At this ground, you need two or three options with the ball because it's really nice to bat on. So we just need to be very clear at the top of our mark, whether we're trying to restrict or take wickets. Shivani Singh comes in for her debut today," she added.
Teams:
Royal Challengers Bengaluru Women (Playing XI): Grace Harris, Smriti Mandhana(captain), Dayalan Hemalatha, Gautami Naik, Richa Ghosh(wicketkeeper), Radha Yadav, Nadine de Klerk, Arundhati Reddy, Shreyanka Patil, Linsey Smith, Lauren Bell.
Gujarat Giants Women (Playing XI): Beth Mooney(wicketkeeper), Sophie Devine, Shivani Singh, Ashleigh Gardner(captain), Georgia Wareham, Kanika Ahuja, Bharti Fulmali, Kashvee Gautam, Tanuja Kanwer, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Renuka Singh Thakur. (ANI)