Klinger: Wyatt-Hodge release driven by GG’s overseas combination, England commitments

October 1, 2026
11:19 pm

Gujarat Giants (GG) released only four players, the fewest of any team, ahead of the WPL 2027 auction. But one of them was England opener Danni Wyatt-Hodge, who was the first woman to breach the 300-run tally at a T20 World Cup earlier this year. Head coach Michael Klinger said it was down to GG’s overseas combinations and a possible WPL schedule clash with England’s international assignments.

Wyatt-Hodge played just once for GG in WPL 2026. She missed the next game with illness and could not regain her spot with Georgia Wareham coming good as an all-rounder in the middle order.

“Last year she didn’t quite fit into our four overseas lineup for the majority of the time,” Klinger said at a media interaction on Thursday. “I actually felt for her because she came in for one game, started reasonably well, and then got sick just before the start of the next game and then got left out and Georgia Wareham came back in and had a really good game. We stuck with that middle-order all-round option for the rest of the tournament. So I felt for her a little bit last season.”

WPL 2027 is scheduled to be played between January 14 and February 7. As per the women’s future tours programme (FTP) drawn in November 2024, England were to tour Sri Lanka for a six-match white-ball tour from mid-February to mid-March 2027. With the ICC moving the inaugural women’s Champions Trophy, to be hosted by India, from June-July to a fortnight in February, at least some part of England’s away tour could clash with the WPL.

Klinger said Wyatt-Hodge was keen on playing some cricket in the lead up to the Champions Trophy. “England do have commitments during the WPL, and if we were to go with a similar sort of setup, then she’d probably be sitting on the bench again,” he said. “I spoke to both her and her agent, and I think they’re keen to be playing some cricket during that time leading into the Champions Trophy.

“So I’m not sure if she’s going to enter the auction or not, but she was quite keen to play that series for England around that same time as well. So probably for both parties, it was the best way to go. It gives us another option in the auction to potentially go for either the same skill set or a different skill set.”

Klinger also said it was a “no-brainer” to pickYastika Bhatia at the mega auction last year despite her unavailability – she was recovering from her knee surgery – and also retain her for WPL 2027.

“[In] my first couple of years [as GG head coach], she was at Mumbai Indians, and she always seemed to play pretty well against us. For me, it was a no-brainer to get her,” he said “I know teams passed on her because she wasn’t available last year. But I just felt that she was on target for her knee to be right sometime in the middle of this year, she would have had a really good lead into the WPL. She got a taste of being back in the Indian team and then after being left out of that squad, she made runs for India A, made runs in the CPL just recently. That’s a really good sign for us. I hope we can do everything we can to help her get back as a permanent fixture in the Indian team.”

While two explosive seasons with GG earned Bharti Fulmali an India recall after seven years, she hasn’t been able to replicate her performances at the top level. In 11 T20I innings this year, she has averaged 12.71 and struck at 103.48, numbers that are in stark contrast to 31.5 and 159.49 in the last two WPL seasons. Klinger put that down to her not having a clear role in the national side, but backed her to come good.

“Bharti is such a dynamic player and I don’t think, other than probably Richa Ghosh, there’s anyone like her style of play in India,” he said. “We’re always excited to have her in our team. She’s probably been placed in a few different positions in the Indian team. We have a very specific role for her, which over the last couple years has worked really well. When she comes into our setup, I feel like she’s happy, and she feels comfortable, and we have a role for her that really suits her. So I’m confident that she’ll be ready to go in WPL 2027, whether she’s making runs in domestic cricket or for India leading up to that or not.”

Klinger, who is overseeing a GG camp in Bengaluru, also said that allrounder Kashvee Gautam was tracking well from her knee injury and is targeting India A’s multi-format home series against England A starting November 30. The seam-bowling allrounder had picked up the injury after India’s tour of South Africa earlier in the year, which made her miss the T20 World Cup.

“Kashvee is at the CoE (BCCI Centre of Excellence) at the moment. She has actually been bowling multiple overs regularly, I think six-plus overs at the moment per session. India are trying to build up her loads to be ready for 50-over cricket as well. She is batting well in the nets as well. Hopefully everything keeps going in the right way and she will have a good six weeks of competitive cricket before the WPL.”