Abhishek Nayar didn't search for a singular explanation for UP Warriorz's WPL 2026 campaign. He couldn't. From the coach's perspective, the season wasn't defined by one failure but more by a series of small breakdowns that compounded over time.
"There are seasons where it's very hard to pinpoint what went wrong," the UPW head coach said looking back. The Warriorz registered just two wins bookended by a hat-trick of losses to finish at the bottom of the table for the second year running. After building a strong squad from scratch at the mega auction, the early signs were promising but consistency eluded them throughout. They got some momentum going with back-to-back wins over Mumbai Indians, but the rhythm broke just as quickly once the WPL bandwagon shifted to Vadodara.
A major contributing factor towards that disruption was the loss of young Phoebe Litchfield when they were in a tight spot qualification-wise. By then, the Australian was already the team's leading run-getter (243 in six innings) and became the fulcrum of UP's batting order at No. 3. "In the business-half, you normally want your in-form players to be there. I just felt that our No. 3 didn't look the same post-Phoebe. And it was hard for us to fill her boots," Nayar said.
UPW tried replacement Amy Jones in the penultimate game - the first since Litchfield returned to Australia with a quad niggle - and then Charli Knott came off the bench to make her debut in the final league match. By then, though, UPW were only mathematically hanging around in the qualification calculation.
Beyond Litchfield, UPW continually struggled for runs at the top. And Nayar repeatedly came back to a core T20 principle of, "when the top-order fires, your team tends to do well." Kiran Navgire's season didn't pan out the way the team had hoped for, and while they attempted other combinations, nothing fetched substantial returns. Harleen Deol got one go, which Nayar admitted wasn't maybe the "right one" on his part. Deepti Sharma eventually opened in the final two and found some success.
Asked if the Deepti switch could have been made earlier, Nayar could only smile. "Yeah, hindsight... works like magic!" But no part of the decision to promote the Indian allrounder, in the game against table-toppers RCB, was a roll of the dice. It was a result of exploiting positive match-ups - given Lauren Bell's numbers against left-handers. Litchfield's absence made the Indian allrounder the obvious next choice.
"We needed that left-hander to come in and take Bell on in the PowerPlay. There was a bit of thought process as to hopefully winning that game and winning that matchup, which I thought we did. But, we didn't capitalize on it." Nayar explained. Deepti made 55 and 29 in the two games, but Nayar warned it shouldn't be viewed as a long-term solution.
While the season was undermined by on-field instability, Nayar insisted the clarity off it never wavered. More so in difficult conversations. Shweta Sehrawat was the Warriorz's only retention ahead of the season, endured a lean patch and was eventually benched in the final game. Navgire, opening alongside skipper Meg Lanning, made three ducks in six outings and only 16 runs otherwise before getting dropped. For Nayar, the messaging was transparent, and keeping the team first.
"I don't believe that retention guarantees anything for anyone," Nayar said. "We know what Shweta has done in the past or what she can do. But it was just one of the seasons where she, like Kiran, couldn't do what she set out to do. And that happens in T20 cricket. You get challenged, things work out, things don't work out.
"The dressing room knows that I've been very honest with my decisions. We've backed every player to the hilt, but when it doesn't work out - you have a season where you haven't got more than 50 runs - [the team] has to look forward and have to look at other options," he reasoned.
Amid the losses, the team also found positives that they hope to carry forward. In Lanning, Nayar said, they've "found their leader" and "an unbelievable talent" in Litchfield. He credited Shikha Pandey for creating an impact beyond the field as well. "They've been great additions to the franchise in general... [but] it was just one of those seasons where people did well, but cumulatively we couldn't succeed."
For a franchise that saw a massive overhaul at the auction, Lanning's presence loomed large throughout. Nayar, in his maiden full-time stint in women's cricket, admitted the learning curve was real, and having Lanning beside him made his job a whole lot easier. "I think, through and through having Meg by my side just made things easier because she earns the respect of the dressing room without doing or saying much. Her actions speak louder than words."
Despite the uncomfortable results, Nayar said Lanning's approach never changed, and credited the former Australian captain for keeping the morale of the dressing room high. "She wakes up the same way every single day. Run, train, lead by example."
Even through an unforgiving campaign such as this, Nayar said the management's focus shifted beyond survival. Players with limited or no opportunities were encouraged to study and learn from the opposition on how they could improve. "When your results don't go your way, you start talking about how your players can get better. And those are the conversations that we had with a lot of them as to where they can get better in their own careers [and] how they can improve as cricketers. When you put them in that mindset, it just keeps them in the right space. We've been all about growth and trying to make sure they think that way, because it's not about one season. It's about hopefully impacting them even in their careers in the future."
The frustrations of 2026 will pinch but, in their own words, the Warriorz have strong takeaways in the form of leadership, clarity and talent. And when that turnaround comes, Nayar believes, Lanning will be at the centre of it, bringing "glory to this franchise" sooner rather than later.
