New Delhi [India], November 5 : Former Indian cricketer Reema Malhotra hailed the Women's Premier League (WPL) for positively impacting the game of young batter Jemimah Rodrigues, saying that playing in the competition has "improved her game and made her improvise her shots".
Reema, who represented India in 64 international matches from 2003 to 2013, was speaking on 'The Great Indian Cricket Show' on Doordarshan.
Malhotra said, "Look at Jemimah Rodrigues. Due to the arrival of the WPL, she has improved her game and improvised her shots. Previously, she had worked with a specific template. But now you know that if you want to stay in the playing XI of Meg Lanning, then you have to take a step forward. That is where we saw Jemimah 2.0."
In India's recently concluded ICC Women's Cricket World Cup-winning campaign, Jemimah scored 292 runs at an average of 58.40 with a strike rate of over 101, including a century and fifty. During the semifinals, she played a knock of 127*, one of the finest knocks in Women's WC history, to chase down a record-breaking 339 to knock out the seven-time champions Australia.
She has worn the Delhi Capitals colours during all three editions of the Women's Premier League (WPL), scoring 507 runs in 27 matches and 24 innings at an average of 28.16, with a strike rate of almost 140, including three fifties.
The former cricketer also heaped praises on opener Smriti Mandhana, her positive attitude and shifting her priorities by skipping the Women's Big Bash League (WBBL) in favour of playing domestic cricket during the second WPL season, which helped her identify and recognise India's domestic talent and capture the WPL title for Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB).
"Smriti is a very positive person. In the WPL, when she became captain in the inaugural season, she had gone to play in the Big Bash League. She was struggling to recognise Indian talent because she was not playing domestic matches. A big player never repeats a mistake. In the second WPL, she missed the Big Bash and started playing domestic matches. She recognised the talent of the players and also won the trophy," said Reema.
Smriti Mandhana was the highest run-scorer for India in the 2025 Women's Cricket World Cup, amassing 434 runs in 9 innings at an average of 54.25, including a century and two fifties, with a high score of 109. She also ended as the second-highest run-getter overall and registered the best-ever World Cup campaign by an Indian women's cricketer.