Gujarat Giants named the star New Zealand bowler Lea Tahuhu as a replacement for Lauren Cheatle for the WPL 2024 on Saturday. Cheatle will miss the second edition of the Women's Premier League starting on February 23, due to a medical treatment for her neck.
Tahuhu, the 33-year-old right-arm pacer, went unsold in the WPL 2024 player auction on December 9 last year. The Kiwi bowler boasts experience of 80 T20I matches and recently took ten wickets in the Women's Super Smash tournament.
Ahmedabad-based franchise finished the first edition of the tournament at the bottom of the points table with just two wins in eight matches. They retained only eight players ahead of the player auction and reinforced ten new signings for 2024, including Cheatle for INR 30 lakh in the accelerated round.
"Gujarat Giants (GG) named Lea Tahuhu as a replacement for Lauren Cheatle for the upcoming edition of the TATA Women’s Premier League (WPL) 2024, starting February 23, 2024," WPL media advisory said. "Tahuhu, who has represented New Zealand in 80 T20Is and 93 ODIs and has 78 and 109 wickets to her name in T20Is and ODIs respectively, will join GG for INR 30 Lakh. Cheatle, a left-arm pacer from Australia, recently underwent a medical procedure on her neck and will be unavailable for the upcoming TATA WPL season. WPL would like to wish Cheatle a speedy recovery."
Tahuhu was part of the Supernovas team that finished runner-up in the Women's T20 Challenge 2020. The Kiwi star also plays for Sydney Thunder in the Women's Big Bash League and represents Manchester Originals in the Women's Hundred.
Gujarat Giants recently unveiled Michael Klinger as their new head coach for the WPL 2024 season who worked with Tahuhu at the Sydney Thunder as an assistant coach.
Gujarat Giants' updated squad for WPL 2024
Beth Mooney (c), Ashleigh Gardner, Dayalan Hemalatha, Harleen Deol, Laura Wolvaardt, Shabnam Shakil, Sneh Rana, Tanuja Kanwer, Phoebe Litchfield, Meghna Singh, Trisha Poojitha, Kashvee Gautam, Priya Mishra, Kathryn Bryce, Mannat Kashyap, Veda Krishnamurthy, Tarannum Pathan, Lea Tahuhu
