Why Amanjot Kaur is Opening Today in MI-W vs UPW-W Match?

The ongoing Women's Premier League 2026 saw the Mumbai Indians taking on UP Warriorz in the eighth match of the league in Navi Mumbai. The defending champions lost the toss and were asked to bat first.

MI-W have done a lot of experiments in the first three matches of the tournament and they continued to do so in the fourth match as well, particularly in the opening batting position. India's all-rounder Amanjot Kaur opened the innings today for MI.

Why Amanjot Kaur is Opening Today?

Gunalan Kamalini and Amelia Kerr opened the innings for MI in the first two matches; however, the latter failed brutally, which included a golden duck as well. The third match saw Hayley Matthews making her first WPL 2026 appearance and opening with Kamalini. Matthews scored 22 runs in this match.

However, in today's MI-W vs UPW-W WPL 2026 match, Amanjot Kaur opened the innings along with G Kamalini. MI don't have a proper opening batter apart from Kamalini, which is why they are constantly experimenting with the second opening batter. Since it is the initial stage of the tournament, they are still looking for a perfect opening combination.

However, the Amanjot Kaur opener move didn't quite work out for Mumbai Indians Women as she could not contribute much in the MI vs UPW WPL game. It remains to be seen whether MI persist with this opening combination in the upcoming matches or not.

Amanjot Kaur WPL Stats

Amanjot Kaur is a young bowling all-rounder who recently made her mark in international cricket. The 25-year-old cricketer has played 32 matches in the Women's Premier League and has scored 249 runs at an average of around 25 and a decent strike rate of 130. She has also taken six wickets in the league with the best bowling figures of 3/22 against the Royal Challengers Benglauru Women.

As mentioned above, Amanjot is a relatively young cricketer who aims to become the best all-rounder in WPL in future. The Chandigarh-born all-rounder has played 21 WT20Is matches so far and scored 185 runs at an average of 30.83, including a half-century.

While with the ball, she has taken only eight wickets so far at an average of 36, but with an impressive economy rate of 7.38. Amanjot is known for her aggressive batting style and usually bats at the lower middle-order, which is why fans were surprised with the move of MI sending her as an opening batter for this match.