WPL 2024: At 38, RCB’s Ekta Bisht becomes oldest player in WPL history

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New Delhi, March 04, 2024: Left-arm spinner Ekta Bisht became the oldest cricketer to play in the Women’s Premier League (WPL) 2024 at the age of 38 years and 25 days.

The southpaw replaced young and dynamic all-rounder Shreyanka Patil in Royal Challengers Bangalore’s (RCB) match against Alyssa Healy’s UP Warriorz on Monday, March 4 at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru.

The 21-year-old Shreyanka, who was RCB’s leading wicket-taker in the inaugural edition of the WPL, missed out due to a niggle.

The Challengers started their WPL campaign with wins against the Warriorz and Gujarat Giants and moved to the top of the table. However, losses at the hands of Mumbai Indians (MI) and Delhi Capitals (DC) pushed them down to No.4.

Who is Ekta Bisht?

Bisht made her debut for India back in 2011. From there on, she played 1 Test, 63 ODIs and 42 T20Is, picking up 3, 98 and 53 wickets respectively.

Back in 2017, Bisht played a crucial role in India beating Pakistan by 95 wickets in the World Cup match at the County Ground in Derby.

Bisht finished with figures of 10-2-18-5 after picking up the wickets of Ayesha Zafar, Sidra Nawaz, Iram Javed, Nashra Sandhu and Diana Baig. Bisht’s best ODI figures of 10-7-8-5 also came against Pakistan back in February 2017 at the PSS in Colombo.

Bisht, who hails from Almora, Uttar Pradesh, last played for India in the bilateral series against New Zealand prior to the 2022 World Cup according to the reports published in indiatoday.in.

Last year, in December, Bisht was picked to play for RCB at a price of INR 30 lakhs. She was also a part of the Velocity team, led by legendary batter Mithali Raj, in the Women’s T20 Challenge. In Indian cricket, she has been one of the best in the business, although she hasn’t played for India in the last 2 years.