The inaugural Women’s Premier League (WPL) 2023 will commence in Navi Mumbai on Saturday, March 5th, with Australian wicket batter Beth Mooney captaining the Gujarat Giants against Harmanpreet Kaur’s Mumbai Indians at the Dr. DY Patil Sports Academy. This highly-anticipated match marks the dawn of a new era of women’s cricket and promises to be an electrifying contest. With the world’s best players in attendance, the season opener is sure to be an exciting and thrilling spectacle.
The tournament will feature five teams, three of which are the same franchises as the Indian Premier League. UP Warriors and Gujarat Giants are the two new franchises that have joined the competition. A total of 22 matches will be played, culminating in a thrilling finale on March 26th.
As fans eagerly anticipate the start of the tournament, the announcement of the commentary panel for the first edition has piqued the interest of supporters, as some of the most renowned male and female cricketers of recent years will be providing their expert analysis for the historic event.
Commentators in WPL on Sports 18 and Jio Cinema:
Aakash Chopra, Venkatesh Prasad, Anjum Chopra, Punam Raut, Reema Malhotra, Veda Krishnamurthy, Natalie Germanos, Kate Cross, Mel Jones, Zaheer Khan, Parthiv Patel.
— Johns. (@CricCrazyJohns) March 3, 2023
Both Venkatesh Prasad and Aakash Chopra were named to the panel, leaving fans stunned in light of their recent feud on social media. As soon as the broadcaster made the announcement, it sparked a flurry of humorous reactions on social media. The unexpected selection of the two former cricketers, who had been at odds with each other, was a surprise to many and provided an entertaining spectacle for fans.
Check out the reactions here:
Multiverse of Madness!!!
Aakash Chopra & Venkatesh Prasad in same panel, Would love to hear them doing commentry together!What say sir @venkateshprasad & @cricketaakash https://t.co/7uBgxZVYn6
— Adiiii (@AdityaSingh751) March 3, 2023
@cricketaakash and @venkateshprasad Both in the panel! https://t.co/W7XgqEAb9c pic.twitter.com/2CTC9i5O2G
— Chetan Chaudhari (@ichbin_chetan) March 3, 2023
Meanwhile Akash Chopra & Venky sir in commentry box: https://t.co/mhmjUy98Ws pic.twitter.com/CFTgmfgOWj
— Abhay Tiwari (@TiwariAbhay9301) March 3, 2023
Aakash chopra and Venkatesh together? pic.twitter.com/BxqEJHPku2
— Non-political Common Man (@Nahi___bataunga) March 3, 2023
For those unfamiliar, over the last month, Prasad has been vocal in expressing his frustrations with KL Rahul’s selection in the Indian Test team. The former Indian pacer took to Twitter to share multiple threads outlining why he believes Rahul should not be in India’s playing XI, citing various statistics.
However, Chopra was not pleased with Prasad’s repeated targeting of Rahul and responded with a YouTube video. Prasad was not happy with the ex-Indian opener’s video and retaliated with a lengthy thread on Twitter, even digging up an old tweet of Chopra’s in which he had criticized Rohit Sharma.
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