WPL 2025: Charlie Dean joins Royal Challengers Bengaluru as replacement for Sophie Molineux

Current Women’s Premier League (WPL) champions Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) were dealt a huge blow before the tournament began. The 2025 tournament is set to begin on 7th February with the final to be played on second March. Ahead of the tournament RCB (W) team have lost the services of Sophie Molineux. 

The defending champions were quick to replace her with England star Charlie Dean. The youngster has played 3 Tests for England. 24-year-old Charlie Dean has also played 39 ODI and 36 T20I matches for her national side. Dean shot to fame when she was mankaded by Deepti Sharma during an ODI match in England.

Sophie Molineux played a key role in RCB winning their maiden WPL title last year. The defending champions put out a statement on Twitter which read “Our champion all-rounder Sophie Molineux has unfortunately been ruled out of #WPL2025 due to a knee injury, and England all-rounder Charlotte Dean has been chosen as her replacement”

Who is Charlie Dean, RCB’s new recruit?

24-year-old Charlie Dean is a right-arm off-spin bowler who can bat well lower down the order. She has been roped in as a replacement for Sophie Molineux who has suffered an injury which will see her miss a considerable amount of cricketing action. Molineux had picked 10 wickets for RCB during their 2024 title-winning season. 

Dean made her T20I debut in 2022 against Australia in Adelaide, but the game ended without a result. So far the 24-year-old has played 36 T20I matches and picked 46 wickets with a best of 4/19 and has a bowling economy rate of 6.91 runs per over. Smriti Mandhana will hope Charlie Dean can form a good partnership with Shreyanka Patil and do the job Sophie Molineux did last year.  

This will be the first time that Charlie Dean gets to taste WPL action in India. Some of the other huge names in the RCB team include Ellyse Perry and New Zealand star Sophie Devine. So far the schedule for the tournament hasn’t been released but the final as per reports is set to be played in Vadodara. 

RCB-W squad for WPL 2025 season. 

Smriti Mandhana (C), Sabbineni Meghana, Richa Ghosh, Ellyse Perry, Georgia Wareham, Shreyanka Patil, Asha Sobhana, Sophie Devine, Renuka Singh, Charlie Dean, Ekta Bisht, Kate Cross, Kanika Ahuja, Danni Wyatt (traded), Prema Rawat, Joshitha VJ, Raghvi Bist, Jagravi Pawar.