WPL 2025: UP Warriorz and RCB name replacements for Alyssa Healy, Sophie Devine, Kate Cross

The Women’s Premier League (WPL), through an official media release, on Monday (February 3) announced that the UP Warriorz have signed the West Indies all-rounder Chinelle Henry as a replacement for Alyssa Healy for the WPL 2025. The Australia Women captain Healy was ruled out of this season due to injury.

Chinelle Henry, who has the experience of 62 T20Is, joined the UP Warriorz for INR 30 Lakh. On the other hand, Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) roped in Heather Graham and Kim Garth as replacements for Sophie Devine and Kate Cross for the upcoming WPL 2025.

Heather Graham and Kim Garth join RCB for WPL 2025

New Zealand all-rounder Sophie Devine and England’s pace bowler Kate Cross both have withdrawn from the upcoming season of the Women’s Premier League for personal reasons. Well, the Australian all-rounder Heather Graham made her T20I debut in 2022, and she has so far played 5 games and claimed 8 wickets.

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Graham made only one ODI appearance for Australia Women in 2019. On the other hand, Kim Garth has an extensive international career, having represented Australia in 59 T20Is, 56 ODIs, and 4 Tests so far, and has over 1400 international runs and 112 wickets to her name.

The Australian all-rounder has scored 764 runs and taken 49 wickets in T20I cricket so far. It will be Garth’s second inning in the WPL, having previously played for Gujarat Giants in the league. Heather Graham and Kim Garth both have now joined Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) for INR 30 lakh each.

WPL confirms Chinelle Henry, Heather Graham and Kim Garth's signing

The WPL said in a media release on Monday: “UPW picked Chinelle Henry as an injury replacement for Alyssa Healy; RCB picked Heather Graham and Kim Garth in place of Sophie Devine and Kate Cross.”

Meanwhile, the defending champions, Royal Challengers Bangalore, will kick off the WPL 2025 by taking on the Gujarat Giants on February 14 at the Vadodara International Cricket Stadium. On the other hand, UP Warriorz will kick off their campaign this season against Gujarat Giants on February 16 at the same venue in Vadodara, which will host the first six matches of the tournament.

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Then, the WPL 2025 action will shift to the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru for the next eight matches, followed by Lucknow hosting four games at the Ekana Stadium, including three games of the local franchise UP Warriorz in the tournament.

Mumbai to host the final leg of the Women's Premier League

The final leg of the tournament will take place in Mumbai at the CCI Stadium, which will host the last four matches, including the Eliminator on March 13 and the final on March 15. The upcoming Women’s Premier League season will be played under the same format as last year, with the five teams—RCB, UPW, Mumbai Indians (MI), Gujarat Giants (GG), and Delhi Capitals (DC)—playing single matches against each other in the league stage.

The top two teams on the points table will directly qualify for the WPL 2025 final, while the second and third-placed teams compete in the Eliminator for a spot in the summit clash. There are no doubleheaders this season, with one match scheduled per day and all matches starting at 7:30 PM.