Harleen Deol ruled out of WPL 2024

WPL 2024’s bottom-sided team Gujarat Giants have been handed a major setback as Harleen Deol has been ruled out of the entirety of the season. The batting all-rounder has reportedly further damaged her already injured left knee and it is being said that Deol will be out for at least a month or two. She hadn’t been experiencing a great tournament either as injuries saw her form, game time, and performance dip.

Harleen Deol is among the most important players of the Gujarat Giants and she was bought in the first WPL auction for the 2023 season as a marquee player. However, across the 2 seasons until now, Gujarat has struggled to find balance in its team composition despite having some big names.

Mentored by former India Women’s team captain Mithali Raj, Gujarat Giants finished last in the previous season with just 2 wins. And this year too, the Giants find themselves at the bottom of the table after suffering 4 losses and a win. As they anyways find themselves going through another rough season, the injury of Harleen Deol adds more problems.

What went wrong with Harleen?

Harleen’s left knee injury had been giving her problems before the WPL had started. Her legs were all strapped, which is a clear indication that it was serious. She did play the first 3 matches for Gujarat against Mumbai Indians, UP Warriorz, and Royal Challengers Bangalore during the Bengaluru leg.

In those matches, Harleen Deol had scores of 8, 18, and 22 respectively during back-to-back losses against MI and UP and a win against RCB. In Gujarat’s 3rd match, she aggravated the injury during a fielding attempt at the M. Chinnaswamy and she hasn’t played any games ever since.

But she had also traveled with the team to New Delhi for the second leg of WPL 2024 and was warming up for Gujarat’s clash against RCB last night, where the Giants won by 19 runs. After further assessment, the number 3 batter has been ruled out of the remaining WPL season. The Giants are to play the reigning champions, UP, and the Delhi Capitals on 9, 11, and 13 March at the Arun Jaitley stadium in their last 3 league games.

Bharti Fulmali was named as Harleen Deol’s replacement

29-year-old Maharashtra-born batter Bharti Fulmali has been named as Harleen Deol’s replacement for the remainder of the WPL 2024 season. Fulamli comes in with a very good experience in the domestic circuit for Vidarbha and has also represented the national team on 2 occasions during T20Is against England back in 2019.

She was also a part of the Trailblazers team in the IPL Women’s showdown matches that were present before the Women’s Premier League. If we talk about the season that Gujarat Giants have had then they only have a win to show for from 5 games and mathematically they can still qualify for the knock-outs.

Not only will they have to win their remaining games of WPL 2024 but also hope that their close rivals UP Warriorz also lose their games. But winning those games for Gujarat against MI, UP themselves, and then table toppers DC won’t be any easy and Harleen Deol’s absence from the top order will hurt them in these matches.