Who is Ahilya Chandel?

Ahilya Chandel’s status as a player from an associate nation also adds to her strategic value because of the WPL foreign players rule which states that a team can field a maximum of five foreign players as long as one of them is an associate player.

The cap on fielding overseas players from full member nations, meanwhile, is four.

If such an opportunity does arrive, Chandel will become the first-ever player from Japan - male or female - to land a contract with a major global T20 franchisee league.

Even if an opportunity doesn’t materialise, training alongside international stars like Jemimah Rodrigues, Meg Lanning and Shafali Verma in the DC nets will be invaluable for Chandel’s development and, by extension, the growth of Japanese cricket.

Ahilya Chandel’s work ethic already has Delhi Capitals head coach Jonathan Betty impressed, who called the Japanese player an absolute gem.

“She has been great. She’s been a real bundle of energy and joy. She’s really bought in to the environment,” Betty told India TV. “She has knowledge and decent learning about playing in different conditions and for her to come over here is really special. She’s part of our support bowling unit and we are carrying for her the tournament as well.”

Who is Ahilya Chandel?

Ahilya Chandel was born on January 10, 2003, to an Indian father and a Japanese mother. Her dad’s roots as an Indian and passion for cricket were instrumental in setting Ahilya Chandel off on the cricketing path.

A left-arm pacer who spent a lot of time playing cricket in Australia, Ahilya Chandel made her international debut for the Japan women’s cricket team on October 27, 2022, in a WT20I against Hong Kong China in the Women’s East Asia Cup.

She finished with figures of 0/21 in the match but has since established herself as the team’s frontline pacer and Japan’s highest wicket-taker of all time in women’s T20 cricket.

Chandel, whose bowling action resembles Australian great Mitchell Starc, boasts 30 wickets for the national team, and has even proved handy with the bat with 200-plus runs to her name.

Her best bowling figure is 4/8 against the People’s Republic of China in the 2024 Asian Cricket Council (ACC) Women’s Premier Cup. The performance also earned Chandel a rare feat.

Ahilya Chandel became the first Japanese cricketer and the fourth overall in women’s T20Is to take a double hat-trick - four wickets in four consecutive deliveries. Her spell of 2.5-0-8-4 played a crucial role in Japan’s four-wicket victory, earning her the Player of the Match award.

Only three other cricketers - Germany’s Anuradha Doddaballapur (5/1 vs Austria in 2020), Botswana’s Shameelah Mosweu (6/3 vs Mozambique in 2021) and Thipatcha Putthawong (5/8 vs Netherlands in 2023) - have managed to register double hat-tricks in women’s T20Is to date.

Click here to read article