Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) spinner Shreyanka Patil opened up about her emotions after being retained by the franchise ahead of the Women’s Premier League (WPL) 2026. The tournament is set to begin on January 9 in Navi Mumbai, with RCB facing defending champions Mumbai Indians (MI) in the season opener.
Ahead of the opening match, during a virtual media interaction, Shreyanka revealed that she went “actually blank” when she first heard the news of her retention.
“I mean, no words can describe how I was feeling when I got that call and I was retained. Malo sir (Head coach Malolan Rangarajan) called me and he was like, Patil, that’s what he calls me. And he’s like, ‘Patil, you’ve been retained’. I was actually blank. I was like shocked because someone who has not played for 13-14 months to trust that girl and just say, I will back you because your skill is up there. You’ve done it before. You’ve been a part of the winning squad.”
She further explained how the faith shown by the franchise boosted her confidence after a long injury layoff.
“So I mean, that gives so much confidence and motivation for any young cricketer, I would say. I was blank and he’s like, ‘Patil, I’ve not seen you this calm’. I said, ‘sir, I need some time for me to express myself’. And then he’s like, ‘OK, Patil, you enjoy’. Then he got the call. I call Arjun sir and I start crying and I’m like, I don’t know what’s happening because I was in that shock because prior to that day, I was thinking too much.”
Shreyanka endured a tough phase over the last 13–14 months, suffering multiple injuries before finally returning to action in domestic cricket and the Women’s Caribbean Premier League (WCPL) 2025.
“I was overthinking. Oh, my God, what will happen? Will I be retained? If not, which team will I be playing for? So many thoughts obviously will come because I’ve not played for a while. So a lot of thoughts. And then when that phone call happened, I was like, finally that nice feeling of just so much love, so much. I mean, I just felt so cute all over again. That’s amazing,” she added.
Due to her injuries, Shreyanka missed the ICC Women’s ODI World Cup 2025, which India went on to win. Her last international appearance came against Australia in Sharjah during the 2024 Women’s T20 World Cup. She admitted feeling disappointed about missing the ODI World Cup.
“I was a bit disappointed. Obviously, I’m very happy that we won our first World Cup. I was a bit disappointed that I was not a part of the team. I felt that I so belonged to that place. But then cricket is a sport where there are a lot of disappointments. Injury, we cannot control our injuries. So I was like, okay, fine. If not for this year, there’s another World Cup coming. So yeah, another trophy for us,” she said.
Shreyanka also shared details of her interaction with India men’s fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah during her time at the BCCI’s Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Bengaluru. She revealed that she received valuable advice on bowling under pressure, especially at the death.
“I had a few questions regarding bowling. Because he’s also, he bowls a lot under pressure. And I’m also someone I know he’s a fast bowler, I’m a spinner, but I do bowl at the death too. So I wanted to ask him, ‘how do you practice, when it comes to yorkers? Is it like you bowl to batters, you bowl to hitters, you just do spot bowling’? I had those questions. And then he came up with some brilliant answers. So that kind of helped me practice in my academy or CoE wherever it was,” she said.
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