The Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) have signed the former England fast bowler, Anya Shrubsole, as their new bowling coach ahead of the 2026 season of the Women’s Premier League (WPL) as part of the reshuffle of their support staff. She will work along with Malolan Rangarajan, the former spinner of the Tamil Nadu side, who would step in as head coach for the future edition.

The change was important due to Luke Williams’ pre-commitment as the head coach ahead of the 2024 season. She won’t be part of the WPL 2026 due to being with the Adelaide Strikers in the Big Bash League (BBL). This has occurred due to the pre-schedule of the WPL, which has been advanced by a month and is going to begin on January 08 and end in early February.

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The 33-year-old Shrubsole featured in 15 innings of the Women’s Test matches to pick 19 wickets at an average of 33.42 and a strike rate of 81.8, with two four-wicket hauls at the best bowling figure of 4/51 in an inning.

Who is RCB's new bowling coach Anya Shrubsole ahead of WPL 2026

In the women’s ODI format, the right-arm medium pacer has bagged 106 wickets in 85 innings at an average of 26.53 and a strike rate of 37.70, riding on four four-wicket hauls and two five-wicket hauls at the best bowling figure of 6/46 in an inning. In 79 innings of the women’s T20Is, the Somerset bowler has picked up 102 wickets at an average of 15.55 and a strike rate of 15.6, with the best figures of 5/11 in an inning.

Anya is a world cup-winning in 2017 and retired from international cricket in 2022 with over 200 wickets. In the season that followed, she served as the player and assistant coach under Charlotte Edwards at the Southern Vipers.

Shrubsole’s stint with the Royal Challengers Bengaluru will be her first in the Women’s Premier League, with Sunetra Paranjpe being the previous bowling coach of the side until 2025. The other members of the support staff are R Muralidhar and Navnita Gautam. Bengaluru had two fourth-place finishes before lifting their first-ever title in 2024, followed by the men’s side lifting the trophy in 2025.