WPL: Royal Challengers Bangalore appoint Sania Mirza as mentor for women's team

Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) on February 15 announced India's star tennis player Sania Mirza as their mentor for the inaugural Women's Premier League (WPL) which will be held in Mumbai from March 4 to 26.

The franchise also announced the signing of Australian Ben Sawyer as head coach on February 14.

''While our coaching staff handle the cricket side of things, we couldn’t think of anyone better to guide our women cricketers about excelling under pressure. 

Join us in welcoming the mentor of our women's team, a champion athlete and a trailblazer! 🙌

Namaskara, Sania Mirza! 🙏,'' RCB tweeted. 

While our coaching staff handle the cricket side of things, we couldn’t think of anyone better to guide our women cricketers about excelling under pressure.

Join us in welcoming the mentor of our women's team, a champion athlete and a trailblazer! 🙌

Namaskara, Sania Mirza! 🙏 pic.twitter.com/r1qlsMQGTb

— Royal Challengers Bangalore (@RCBTweets) February 15, 2023

RCB have also named Malolan Rangarajan, the former Tamil Nadu offspinner and lead talent scout as an assistant coach, while VR Vanistha, the former India batter, will come on board as fielding coach.

Apart from these, they have also brought RX Murali as a power-hitting coach and has built up an excellent body of work locally in Bengaluru, having helped train several Karnataka players, Mayank Agarwal among the more prominent names in recent times.

Coming to Sania Mirza, She recently suffered a loss and early exit from the women's doubles category of the ongoing Abu Dhabi Open, where she and her partner Bethaine Mattek-Sands were beaten in the Round 16 after straight-set defeats.

In January last month, both Sania and Rohan Bopanna's journey in the Australian Open came to an end after the duo suffered a defeat to the Brazilian pair of Luisa Stefani and Rafael Matos.

Both the Indian tennis player suffered a defeat 6-7, 2-6.

Sania, who was playing her final Grand Slam, had previously won three women's doubles Grand Slam titles and as many in mixed doubles in her career while Bopanna has won one mixed doubles Grand Slam title.

The Indian pair had earlier knocked out the third seeds Desirae and Krawczky and Neal Skupski in the semifinals of the Australian Open 2023.