Deepesh Sharma to mentor UP Warriorz in WPL 2025.

UP Warriorz took an early leap forward ahead of WPL 2025, going public with an early decision: they have upgraded Deepti Sharma as the new captain of this season, replacing Alyssa Healy who had to be treated for her right foot having a stress injury that would sideline her from playing the entire season. The franchise has brought in Deepti for this. And this is going to be an interesting season that just might define both Deepti Sharma and the franchise.

An all-rounder from Agra, who had been part of the Warriorz side since day one in the WPL, the all-rounder had been consistently performing with both bat and ball for the franchise and was becoming a consistent performer with a short while left in the league. In 17 games of WPL where she has faced balls, Deepti has taken a total of 19 wickets for the side and is incidentally her team's second highest wicket-taker. This aside, she has scored 385 runs in 16 innings; consequently, third-highest runs scorer for her team.

Young batter Deependra Sunariya has reached her best season in 2024 with an excellent outing, but the team did not get into the playoffs. She scored 295 runs in eight innings, at a strike rate of 136.57 and averaged 98.33. Also, she has done a good job with the ball and took 10 wickets at an economy rate of 7.23 which makes her an all-rounder.

Other than brilliance on the field, Deepti has also captained in the past. She captained Bengal in domestic cricket, led East Zone to a win in Senior Women's Inter-Zonal One Day Trophy 2024, and had also captained Velocity in Women's T20 Challenge 2022. That leadership across formats will only set her up very well for taking on the challenge of the UP Warriorz captaincy.

Speaking about the appointment, Deepti was elated and felt proud that she is being provided with an opportunity to captain her home-state franchise. "I am delighted and honored to be named as the captain of UP Warriorz, which is a team from my home state," she said in a release. "UP Warriorz has a great team, and we are sure to entertain the fans one last time in this season with the Warriorz style of cricket at WPL. We'd love to play in Lucknow in front of our home crowds and inspire generations of the next female athletes."

Deepthi was one of the newer skippers and could have delivered much-needed stability on the grounds, absent for the whole former team by the skipper herself Alyssa Healy as the foot stress injury would keep her out of competition for the tenure of WPL in the whole of the 2025. The right-handed batter made it to 428 runs from no less than 17 games that she played across this tournament board on bat and would be really turned handy very soon. But she has also recently had some injuries, which kept her out of some games. She had been unavailable for the T20I series of the Women's Ashes and was only available to play in the Test match at MCG for which she passed a late fitness test. Another injury also involved a tear to the plantar fascia in the 2024 T20 World Cup. This led her to miss the last series of games for Australia except for their semi-final match against South Africa. She injured her knee playing for the 2024-25 season in the Women's Big Bash League.

The loss has made UP Warriorz replace the season with a player in Chinelle Henry, who will now have to fill the vacuum that Healy's absence has created for her side as well, and equitably for them both, with bat and ball for the next season.

It is bringing some added value for UP Warriorz for the 2025 season of WPL as this is going to be their very first chance for them from where they would be playing a few matches prior to their home-turf crowd of Lucknow. So, their tour begins on 16th of February against Gujarat Giants from the City of Vadodara and its folk just can't wait for them to return back to this city. Coupled with that, the added factor of the side playing in front of its home crowd gives them an exciting zest as they await to put up a good league performance.

The UP Warriorz have been doing sharp training to tackle every challenge on both sides by challenging title wins under the ace skipper in Deepti Sharma. Missing Alyssa Healy, nothing could bring this team other than thrilling competitiveness as the newly appointed leader has all the ammunition for them, and the followers of the Warriors will surely rally them to register their presence among the winners during the 2025 WPL edition.