New Delhi, Nov 7 (IANS) UP Warriorz head coach Jon Lewis has said that Sri Lanka captain Chamari Athapaththu’s bowling skills gave her the edge over someone like Danni Wyatt-Hodge to be in the side’s playing eleven. Danni didn’t get a game for UP Warriorz in WPL 2024, as Chamari played ahead of her. Before the retentions day deadline on Thursday, Danni had been traded to defending champions Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB), where she could be the opening partner of captain Smriti Mandhana.

“With Danni in particular, she’s obviously a really experienced and excellent cricketer. She's a brilliant cricketer. We felt we have five really top quality overseas players and we needed a little bit of flexibility in the auction to find someone who could do a slightly different role to what Danni could play.”

“Chamari's bowling probably just edges out Danni in playing eleven if she comes in. Obviously, our captain is a top-order batter, and Chamari can play at the top of the order. Grace Harris can play in that position too, while Danni is obviously an out-and-out batter. So the fact that Grace, Tahlia and Chamari are able to bowl really gives us some flexibility with them.”

“So we felt that, unfortunately for Danni and us, we would have liked to get her in the eleven because she's a fantastic cricketer. But she was just surplus to requirements at the moment in terms of what we feel we need moving forward. It's great for me that Danni's gone off and she'll play some cricket hopefully for RCB, so we'll see how she goes there,” said Lewis in a virtual press conference.

A big concern for UPW has been the make-up of the pace-bowling department, which put in a lacklustre performance in the 2024 season. Lewis said they are open to seeing options from domestic as well as international cricket to strengthen that aspect of their team while adding Saima Thakor and Anjali Sarvani can be big contributors.

“Well, we keep our eyes on everything. We've got a really wide scouting system. We've got scouts out watching a lot of cricket. We're looking at all the domestic cricket players and trying to find some domestic talent to come and fill some space. If I'm really honest, finding someone from domestic cricket or within our squad who can improve and bowling the power play would be really, really useful for us,” he said. “We're looking for Anjali Sarvani to come back stronger than she did last year. She came into the tournament off the back of a really tough year with a knee injury. Obviously, last year gave us a chance to give Saima Thakor an opportunity to come and open the bowling for us.”

“She's gone from strengths to strengths, and obviously, we've seen her open the bowling for India recently. We hope that our investment and time with those players will pay off next season. Saima is definitely improving, and Anjali, from her character, will come back stronger. But we'll also be looking around domestic and international cricket people who can play in that space,” he added.

Lewis was also in huge praise of Saima, who picked four wickets in her debut ODI series against New Zealand last month. “Well, Saima's shown some real improvement. For her to come to us last year with very little experience and play for us to give her the opportunity to play a couple of games for us and the way that she responded to that and how she came in and showed what she can do, obviously impressed people around the Indian selection.”

“For her to progress from that point to the point where she's opening the bowling for India in international cricket is a big jump forward. I hope that she can come into the WPL, show the improvements she's made, and be a real asset to us. What I do know about Saima is that she's got great character and is a real fighter.”

UPW also have a lot of work to do around their batting order, which has seen top-order batters play out of positions and be in the middle order. Lewis kept cards close to his chest on where power-hitting Kiran Navgire would bat in WPL 2025.

“Kiran is incredibly powerful and really talented again. We have a lot of options to think about, and when it comes down to that time, we will decide. We are making sure that we keep all our options open. Kiran can play at the top of the order as a finisher, and that power makes her unique. Bowlers and opponents really fear Kiran; she can take games away from anyone at any point. She has a really unique skill set in terms of power in women’s cricket,” he said.

“That's something we've got to utilise well and best we can at UP. So we'll make those decisions closer to the tournament. But I'm hopeful that Kiran continues that good form. I know she scored 100 recently in domestic cricket. We hope that continues, as we've got a group of players who are performing well domestically, who come into our franchise, and who are able to transform their domestic form into runs for UP Warriorz.”

He signed off by saying Shweta Sehrawat, who bats mostly in the top order, will continue to bat in the middle order for UPW.

“Shweta is another one of those players who spends most of her time or has spent most of her time playing at the top of the order. So the chance of that happening is still there for her. But we have multiple options in that space. So it's probably more likely that Shweta will play in the middle-order role that she’s played. Moving through WPL three, it might be an easier role for her to play. That's not to say that she won't open the batting.”

“But she's an incredibly talented young player again. She comes from that core of young Indian talent that we've been working really hard with over the last two-three years to make sure that UP team grows,” he added.