RCB’s Australian star ruled out of WPL 2025 with injury

Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) have been forced to make a change before the start of the Women's Premier League 2025.

Sophie Molineux, who played a crucial role in RCB’s title-winning campaign in 2024, is set to undergo treatment for her injured knee. This injury also ruled her out of the New Zealand ODIs in December 2024, right after she featured in Australia's women’s 3-0 win against India in Queensland. Hence, she will be unable to take part in WPL 2025. 

RCB have named English allrounder Charlie Dean as Molineux’s replacement, who will join the franchise for INR 30 Lakh. Dean, a 24-year off-spinning allrounder who has already played 36 T20Is for England, has 46 wickets at a really good average of 18.19. 

She has also picked 18 scalps in the women’s competition of the Hundred and leads England’s senior spin attack alongside Sophie Ecclestone and Sarah Glenn. She also won The Hundred Womens this year along with the London Spririt, where she was teammates with Deepti Sharma, who had run her out on the non-striker's end in Jhulan Goswami's last international game. That caused a lot of controversy involving Dean and Sharma. 

RCB have a similar resource available in Shreyanka Patil, an off-spinning all-rounder when it comes to picking Dean as a replacement. However, Dean’s batting is slightly more trustworthy internationally since she has also played 39 ODIs, three Tests for England, and the T20Is.

While the WPL 2025 schedule is yet to be announced, the tournament is expected to run majorly in February and end around a week before IPL 2025, which is set to begin around mid-March.