Two months ago, Sneh Rana wouldn’t even have thought about being on the field in the Women’s Premier League (WPL) 2025 after going unsold in the auction in December 2024. But fortune saw the spin-bowling all-rounder back in the thick of things as Rana replaced the injured Shreyanka Patil at Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) for the WPL 2025 season.
Rana was roped in by RCB for INR 30 lakhs. Rana made her RCB debut against UP Warriorz, at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru, in place of teen talent VJ Joshitha.
It’s been a rollercoaster ride in the WPL for Rana, who captained the Gujarat Giants in the WPL 2023 season following Beth Mooney’s injury. Rana played eight games that season, picking up six wickets at an average of 34.83 but went wicketless in the 2024 edition, with Gujarat Giants also struggling as they finished bottom last with only 2 wins from their eight games.
The Giants rejigged their squad ahead of their 2025 season, not retaining their former captain and vice-captain. Rana’s best WPL performance came in the very first game of the 2023 season, which was also her first game as captain where she picked up 2/43 from her 4 overs but couldn’t manage more than a run with the bat, with Mumbai Indians thrashing the Giants by 143 runs to kick off the WPL.
Hailing from Dehradun, Uttarakhand, Rana made her ODI debut in 2014 against Sri Lanka and made her T20I debut in the same series against Sri Lanka. Her Test debut came in June 2021 against England and Rana also holds the record for being the first women spinner to take a 10-wicket haul in Test cricket. Rana also made her highest Test score (80*) on her Test debut against England at Bristol. Rana has 23 wickets in 4 Tests, while she has 29 and 24 wickets in ODIs and T20Is respectively.
The spinner though has been out of the Indian team for a while, having played her last ODI game in December 2023 and a T20I in February 2023. Rana’s last Test match also came almost a year ago, at Chennai against South Africa in June 2024. Rana mostly recently led the India C team at the senior Women’s ODI Challenger Trophy and ended up as third highest wicket taker.
Rana is replacing Shreyanka Patil, who was the breakout star last year in RCB’s title winning campaign, finishing as the highest wicket-taker in the WPL 2024. Rana will have her task cut out this time around as she has been given a golden opportunity to get back amongst the scheme of things in the Indian camp.
On debut, Rana was given the ball by the skipper Smriti Mandhana in the final over of the powerplay. She immediately struck on the 2nd ball, removing the dangerous Tahlia McGrath for a four-ball duck. The Warriorz openers took the attack to the RCB new-ball bowlers before they were sent back to the pavilion. The Deepti Sharma-led side were at 50/2 in the 5th over in a run chase of 181. She gave away just seven runs in her first over with the ball for her new franchise Royal Challengers Bengaluru.
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