Will the loss of Ellyse Perry be too much to handle?

The WPL 2026 is just three days away and Smriti Mandhana-led RCB are all set to take on MI in the tournament opener on January 9 in Navi Mumbai. There are a lot of expectations from the team, as a one-time winner, but they were met from the start. Their top all-rounder, Ellyse Perry, withdrew from the tournament due to personal reasons. This could potentially harm him in the coming days. However, Sayali Satghare came to replace him.

But the bigger question is who could be RCB’s best XI in WPL 2026?

Injury problems

Perry is out and the team has developed another fast bowling all-rounder. But apart from this, we don’t know the status of Shreyanka Patil and Pooja Vastrakar. Both are injury prone and have not played for India in a while. Then their match fitness could also be a concern.

Too much dependence on foreign stars?

As is the norm, each team can only field four foreign players, RCB might find it difficult to choose their own. There is no Perry, and there is still a choice to be made between Voll, Harris, de Klerk and Lauren Bell. This does not make it easy for Mandhana and the management.

RCB’s strongest XI

RCB full squad: Smriti Mandhana, Ellyse Perry, Richa Ghosh and Shreyanka Patil, Lauren Bell, Pooja Vastrakar, Grace Harris, Arundhati Reddy, Radha Yadav, Nadine de Klerk, Georgia Voll, Linsey Smith, Dayalan Hemalatha, Prema Rawat, Gautami Nayak, Prathyoosha Kumar, Sayali Satghare.