We have enough depth to start a six-team women’s IPL: Smriti Mandhana

In recent times, the Indian Women's team has demonstrated exceptional character. In the three ICC tournaments held since 2017, they have reached the final two times. This alone demonstrates the meteoric rise of women’s cricket in India. Keeping the team's progress in mind, there appears to be a pressing need for the introduction of a full-fledged Women's IPL.

India women’s young batting sensation Smriti Mandhana feels India has enough resources to establish a six-team women’s IPL. 

“When the men's IPL started, there were the same number of states and the quality went higher as they played. The IPL today isn't the same as the one 10 or 11 years ago. For women's cricket, I think we have enough girls and enough states. In fact, we will have around 5-6 good teams to start with. Till we start, we don't know," Mandhana was quoted as saying on Ravichandran Ashwin’s YouTube channel. 

Using the IPL and the Women's Big Bash League as examples, the 25-year-old stated that the quality of domestic players has improved by a factor of two since the establishment of such leagues.

“Five-six teams, we are good to go with. But eight teams, I am still not sure how it will look like. But I think we really need to start with five or six teams so that we can actually get to eight teams very soon. I think till we don't start, we are not giving exposure to our girls to turn their cricket into a really different level. I played in Big Bash four years back and now the quality is very different. You can see that in Cricket Australia where they have 40-50 cricketers ready to play international cricket any day. So, I really want that to happen in Indian cricket. I think IPL will play a huge role in that," she added.