New Delhi, March 15: Nitish Kumar Reddy has been given the green light by the BCCI’s medical team at the Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru to take part in IPL 2025. He will be available for Sunrisers Hyderabad’s opening match on March 23, when they host Rajasthan Royals. Nitish is expected to join the SRH pre-season camp, which begins on Sunday.

The final step in his recovery was a yo-yo test on Saturday morning, where he recorded a score of 18 – comfortably surpassing the qualifying mark of 16.5, ESPNcricinfo reported. This milestone confirmed his readiness after undergoing the standard rehabilitation process for a side strain he sustained during last month’s T20I series against England.

On Friday, Nitish played in a practice match and bowled at full intensity without any discomfort. The BCCI’s medical panel took a cautious approach with his recovery, extending his rehab by two weeks beyond the initial three-week estimate. He remains a key part of India’s Test plans, with a tour of England scheduled shortly after the IPL concludes in late May.

SRH had retained five players ahead of last year’s mega auction, with Nitish among them. He enjoyed a breakthrough IPL 2024 season, scoring 303 runs at a strike rate of 142.92. His bowling, however, was less effective, managing just three wickets while conceding runs at an economy of 11.62.

Following his IPL success, Nitish made his international debut in the T20I series against Bangladesh at home. His reputation soared further when he played all five Tests of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in Australia, highlighted by a maiden Test century in Melbourne.

After returning from the tour, Nitish had expressed interest in training with former India bowling coach Bharat Arun in Chennai. However, the plan did not materialise due to his side strain setback. Now fully fit, he is set to return to action and make an impact for SRH in IPL 2025.

Mumbai, March 15: The women’s cricket teams of Delhi Capitals and Mumbai Indians will face each other for the title clash on Saturday in the Women’s Premier League 2025. This match will be played at the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai. While the Delhi Capitals team made it to the final by topping the points table, Mumbai Indians defeated Gujarat Giants in the eliminator match.

The Delhi Capitals team would like to win any kind of title for the first time. This team has reached the final for the third consecutive time, but they have not yet won the trophy. At the same time, Mumbai Indians also seem to be in their form for the last phase of WPL 2025. They have also got good match practice before the final. In contrast, Delhi finished their group matches in Lucknow, celebrated a holiday, and have practiced only three times before the final.

These two teams have faced each other in the final of the first season of the Women’s Premier League. Mumbai Indians had won the match then. However, Delhi’s performance against Mumbai has been strong this season.

Talking about the pitch, there is a possibility of batting getting help here and slow bowlers will also benefit here. There is hope here, despite this, all the three matches played here in the current season have been won by the team batting first. Usually teams like to run-chase here, but the results of the last few matches have worked to change this perception. Therefore, it will be interesting to see what decision the captain takes after the toss in the final.

Delhi Capitals Women’s Team: Meg Lanning (Captain), Shafali Verma, Jess Jonassen, Jemimah Rodrigues, Annabel Sutherland, Marizanne Kapp, Sarah Bryce (Wicketkeeper), Niki Prasad, Minnu Mani, Shikha Pandey, Titas Sadhu, Radha Yadav, Arundhati Reddy, Alice Capsey, Tania Bhatia, Sneha Deepti, Nandini Kashyap, Nallapureddy Charani

Mumbai Indians Women’s Team: Yastika Bhatia (Wicketkeeper), Hayley Matthews, Nat Sciver-Brunt, Harmanpreet Kaur (Captain), Sajeevan Sajna, Amelia Kerr, Amanjot Kaur, G Kamalini, Sanskriti Gupta, Shabnim Ismail, Saiqa Ishak, Chloe Tryon, Nadine de Klerk, Keerthana Balakrishnan, Jintimani Kalita, Parunika Sisodiya, Amandeep Kaur, Akshita Maheshwari

Bengaluru, March 14: Dinesh Karthik feels that the Indian Premier League (IPL) has instilled a winning mentality in the Indian players over the years.

“The IPL has brought out a winning mentality in all our players. With the influx of money and the financial benefits that a lot of the teams receive, and in turn the stakeholders, much of it has been put back into infrastructure. So, when infrastructure grows, eventually the quality of sport develops as well,” he said in a conversation with Mo Bobat, Director of Cricket, RCB, and former England cricketer, Isa Guha, during the RCB Innovation Lab Indian Sports Summit.

The former India wicket-keeper further added, “We can say that since the IPL has become a part of Indian cricket’s fabric, they can now field two to three teams in international cricket at the same time and almost compete with each one of them. Right now, India is in a very privileged place where they have such a good assortment of cricketers across skill sets.”

Reflecting on his experience of sharing a dressing room with Glenn McGrath in the early years of the IPL and how it shaped his approach to the game, “For me, the whole ideology of how Australia played at that time was a massive shock. They felt like a pack of wolves out to win every game. But with IPL, in my first year, I got to spend time with Glenn McGrath in close quarters and practice with him. I got to know him better and became comfortable, which helped the confidence and mindset of competing with the best,” he said.

The second edition of the RCB Innovation Lab Indian Sports Summit Powered by Leaders will be held on March 14 and 15 in Bengaluru and is currently underway at the Padukone Dravid Centre for Sports Excellence.

Along with cricketers Dinesh Karthik, Isa Guha, and RCB’s Director of Cricket Mo Bobat, international sports icon and RCB cricketer Virat Kohli, two-time Olympic medallist and former India hockey player PR Sreejesh, Jayant Chaudhary, Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship are scheduled to attend the event.