Shreyanka Patil on RCB retaining her for the 2026 WPL season as she runs out of words to describe her feeling.
Shreyanka Patil was unable to play for Royal Challengers Bengaluru in their Women’s Premier League title defence less than a year ago due to a shin ailment. She had already missed a few months due to the injury sustained during the Women’s T20 World Cup in October 2024, but she was expected to miss a few more. “Little” was what she expected, but to her dismay, it got much worse.
Patil was unable to fully recuperate for the April–May tri-series in Sri Lanka, which also included South Africa, after missing the WPL. She did not attend the tour of England in June and July. This list also included the home World Cup, which she claimed “hurt a lot” to miss.
“I thought it was just like a one-off injury where I recovered in just like a couple of months, maybe two, three months,” Patil said on Wednesday. “But then I didn’t really see myself being there [CoE] for more than a year. It almost took me like 13 to 14 months to get out of COE, back on the field playing cricket. That’s what I love to do. But unfortunately, the shin splints again reoccurred and then I had to go through the procedure all over again,”
“Once I started missing tournaments back to back, and missing out on WPL, that was a big blow for me. Missing the World Cup hurt a lot. As a cricketer, you always want to lift that trophy.”
Spending time in BCCI’s Centre of Excellence (CoE) wasn’t easy for Patil, specially when so much of cricket was passing her by while she nursed injuries. “I wasn’t talking to anyone at the start. I locked myself in a room for two or three months,” she said. “That wasn’t me. I’m usually very bubbly. But talking to people made me realise I wasn’t alone.”
But speaking to Jasprit Bumrah, who also spent time at the CoE, assuaged some of her worries. “I had so many questions [for Bumrah],” Shreyanka said. “About bowling under pressure, about practising yorkers. Even though he’s a fast bowler and I’m a spinner, I bowl at the death too. He told me ‘this is okay, everyone goes through it.’ He said I’m facing it at a young age, so ‘don’t fight it. Just be in it.'”
In the end, RCB is the team that offers her a path back to playing competitive cricket. She was one of the four retentions, demonstrating the franchise’s faith in their all-rounder despite months of inactivity.
“No words can describe how I felt,” Shreyanka said of being one of the retentions. “Someone who hasn’t played for 13 or 14 months, and they still trust you and say, ‘We’ll back you because your skill is up there’…it gives so much confidence. I was overthinking before that. ‘What if I’m not retained, which team will I play for?’ All those thoughts were there. After the call, I rang Arjun [Dev, her personal coach] sir and just started crying. I didn’t even know what I was feeling. It was just so much love and belief.”