"She’s hit me over the wall about five times" – Heather Knight on her camaraderie with Sophie Devine ahead of RCB vs DC in WPL 2023

Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) all-rounders Heather Knight and Sophie Devine have begun preparations for the inaugural Women’s Premier League (WPL 2023).

Ahead of their opening clash, Knight opened up about her camaraderie with New Zealand all-rounder Devine. She reckons that having quality overseas all-rounders will benefit them.

Speaking to RCB, the England captain said:

"Yeah, it’s great [the camaraderie]. I’ve just bowled it safe in the nets and she’s [Sophie Devine] hit me over the wall about five times. So, it’s quite nice to be on the same team as her but it’s really nice if we’ve got some really high-quality overseas players that are really experienced and we’ve played against each other a lot."

Knight added that having experience playing with RCB captain Smriti Mandhana and Erin Burns helped her gel up with the team.

“I’ve played with Erin Burns so I know her extremely well and played with Smriti before, so the dynamics are really nice actually and actually just trying to learn off each other trying to impart our knowledge and onto the domestic girls. They’ve been asking lots of questions and just getting to know them and soaking out. I’ve really enjoyed the first few days.”

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Sophie Devine opens up on her latest training session with RCB

New Zealand captain Sophie Devine, meanwhile, has expressed her delight after spending quality time with players in the nets.

She told RCB:

“Yeah, look it's fantastic wickets. I think it’s nice and it’s my second hit with the group and I think it’s just nice to just swing the arms and get hold of a few. It [the shoot] was awesome obviously the jersey reveal, which was pretty special.”

Squad: Smriti Mandhana, Sophie Devine, Ellyse Perry, Renuka Singh, Richa Ghosh, Indrani Roy, Disha Kasat, Shreyanka Patil, Kanika Ahuja, Asha Shobhana, Erin Burns, Heather Knight, Dane van Niekerk, Preeti Bose, Poonam Khemnar, Komal Zanzad, Megan Schutt, Sahana Pawar.

The Bengaluru-based franchise will play their opening game against Delhi Capitals (DC) at the Brabourne-CCI on Sunday, March 5.