Danielle Wyatt wishes to play for Virat Kohli's RCB in the IPL

Danielle Wyatt, the England women’s cricketer, has recently said she would be privileged to play for the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in the Indian Premier League (IPL). The top-order batswoman has gotten a taste of an IPL-like scenario while playing for the Velocity, led by Mithali Raj, in the 2019 Women’s T20 Challenge. There she managed 89 runs at an average of 29.66, striking at 121.91.

Even in 2018, Wyatt was a part of the Harmanpreet Kaur-led Supernovas in a women’s exhibition match before the IPL playoffs. About the RCB, Wyatt has a fondness towards the team since it has some of the biggest names in the cricket world, including skipper Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers.

Danielle Wyatt opines

“I don’t mind any team, really. But I support Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) because they have/had Chris Gayle, Virat Kohli, Moeen Ali, Yuzvendra Chahal and AB de Villiers. So, RCB would be cool, I’d like to play for them,” Wyatt was quoted as saying in cricket.com.

Albeit there’s no dearth of talent in the Challengers, they are yet to get their hands on the coveted trophy. In 2009, 2011 and 2016, they indeed went on to play the final, but couldn’t cross the last hurdle. In the last couple of seasons, Kohli and Co had to end at the bottom-half of the points table.

Despite getting big runs, it’s their bowling unit that has mostly suffered at the hands of the oppositions. For the next season, RCB released quite a few of their stars, including Marcus Stoinis and Shimron Hetmyer. Instead they picked the likes of Aaron Finch and Kane Richardson.

As far as Wyatt is concerned, she has done reasonably well on Indian pitches. Back in March 2018, she notched her highest T20 score of 124 off 64 balls against the Women in Blue at the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai. Against India, she averages 30.27 in T20Is, much higher than her career average of 20.10.

She was recently a part of the England team in the Women’s T20 World Cup in Australia. She didn’t have the greatest of times as she could only manage 47 runs in four games with a top score of 29 against the West Indies Women at the Sydney Showground Stadium.