The second edition of the Women’s Premier League, beginning here on Friday with a match between defending champions Mumbai Indians and runners-up Delhi Capitals, will be optimistic about meeting its existential purpose of giving a wider platform to promising home-grown talents.

The foreign stars glittered brightly in the inaugural edition held in Mumbai, and the Indians will be hoping to hog some of the limelight this year as the tournament flaunts a multi-city format with New Delhi being the other host city.

While Capitals’ skipper Meg Lanning, who has now retired from international cricket, took the Orange Cap last year for the highest run-getter, the Purple Cap went to Hayley Matthews of Mumbai for taking 16 wickets.

Amid this surge of overseas players, the Indian cricketers generally struggled for consistency and impact in the previous year, but now some of the young domestic stars will eye this WPL with genuine hope.

Like Shreyanka Patil of Royal Challengers Bangalore. During WPL 2023, she was a wide-eyed young cricketer who was awestruck to rub shoulders with some of the finest names in women’s cricket. But in the last 10 months or so, Patil has built a place of her own. She earned her maiden India cap in both Test and ODIs in December last year, besides making her mark in the Caribbean Premier League for the Guyana Amazon Warriors.

So, alongside the Harmanpreet Kaurs and Smriti Mandhanas, the Titas Sadhus and Minnu Manis will also hope to steal some of the headlines.

Reputations will be at stake, benchmarks will be set as a fresh edition of the WPL gives women's cricket a shot in the arm.