WPL MINI AUCTION 2023 - HIGHLIGHTS
The excitement is overwhelmingly high amongst the fans as the Women's Premier League is gearing up for the second season after the thrilling first season. The WPL's first Mini Auction concluded on Saturday in Mumbai. A total of 165 players, including 61 overseas, went under the hammer. All 5 teams looked to strengthen their squad & tried to fulfill their gaps. As expected the two teams with the heavy purse, Gujarat Giants & Royal Challengers Bangalore, went behind lots of big domestic & overseas names. Gujarat Giants were very keen to get young stylish Australian batter Phoebe Litchfield for whom they had to spend 1 crores. But, this was the Indian uncapped All Rounder, Kashvee Gautam, who had caught the attention of the teams after her scintillating performance in Emerging Asia Cup & Domestic Circle & went for huge amount of 2 crores to Gujarat Giants after a bid war between UP Warriorz & Gujarat Giants. Another uncapped Indian Vrinda Dinesh was bought by UP Warriorz in 1.3 Crores.
Mumbai Indians looked to get Annabel Sutherland to strengthen their middle order but Delhi Capitals didn't allow them to do so. DC bagged in Sutherland for an amount of 2 crores making her most expensive overseas player of this mini auction.
The Royal Challengers Bangalore once again looked for big names but this time they look to have corrected their mistakes made in the previous auction. They went behind Spinners & Spin All Rounders unlike the previous auction where they had focused on Pacers & Pace All Rounders. RCB got Australian All Rounder Georgia Wareham & the experienced Sophie Molineux at quite good prices. To fulfill their loopholes in spin department, they even bagged in the spin sensation of her time Ekta Bisht.
The Mumbai Indians had very clear plans of the players they had targeted. They didn't went behind lots of names rather they looked to get 2-3 sensational players who could settle in their squad. Annabel Sutherland was their first choice which they couldn't get in but they won the bid war to purchase the fastest Women Pacer Shabnim Ismail for an amount of 1.2 Crores.
Amongst all the chaos of bidding & winning, it was shock for the cricketing world that the Sri Lankan All Rounder Chamari Athapaththu went unsold in the auction. She has been in great touch both with the bat & the ball for a year or so. Interestingly, she wasn't drafted in for the Women's Big Bash League too this season. But, she joined Sydney Thunder as a replacement player & became the Player of the Tournament.
With the conclusion of the Mini Auction, all the teams looked quite satisfied with their performance throughout the auction. However, RCB once again appears to have beaten other 4 teams in the auction which anyway didn't turn out in their performance the last season.
Let's have a look at how all the squads look now before the 2nd season of the Women's Premier League.
Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB)
Retained
Smriti Mandhana
Ellyse Perry
Sophie Devine
Heather Knight
Richa Ghosh
Shreyanka Patil
Renuka Singh Thakur
Kanika Ahuja
Disha Kasat
Asha Shobana
Indrani Roy
From the Mini Auction
Georgia Wareham - 40L
Sophie Molineux - 30L
Kate Cross - 30L
Simran Bahadur - 30L
Sabbineni Meghana - 30L
Ekta Bisht - 60L
Shubha Satheesh - 10L
Mumbai Indians (MI)
Retained
Harmanpreet Kaur
Hayley Matthews
Nat Sciver Brunt
Amelia Kerr
Pooja Vastrakar
Yastika Bhatia
Saika Ishaque
Chloe Tryon
Amanjot Kaur
Issy Wong
Humairaa Kaazi
Jintimani Kalita
Priyanka Bala
From the Mini Auction
Shabnim Ismail - 120L
Amandeep Kaur - 10L
S Sajana - 15L
Fatima Jaffer - 10L
Keerthana Balakrishnan - 10L
Delhi Capitals (DC)
Retained
Meg Lanning
Marizanne Kapp
Jemimah Rodrigues
Shafali Verma
Alice Capsey
Jess Jonassen
Laura Harris
Shikha Pandey
Titas Sadhu
Taniya Bhatia
Anuradha Reddy
Minnu Mani
Poonam Yadav
Radha Yadav
Sneha Deepthi
From the Mini Auction
Annabel Sutherland - 200L
Ashwani Kumar - 10L
Aparna Mondal - 10L
Gujarat Giants (GUJ)
Retained
Ashleigh Gardner
Beth Mooney
Sneh Rana
Harleen Deol
Laura Wolvaardt
Dayalan Hemalatha
Shabnam Shakil
Tanuja Kanwar
From the Mini Auction
Kashvee Gautam - 200L
Phoebe Litchfield - 100L
Lauren Cheatle - 30L
Meghna Singh - 30L
Veda Krishnamurthy - 30L
Priya Mishra - 20L
Trisha Poojitha - 10L
Kathryn Bryce - 10L
Mannat Kashyap - 10L
Tarannum Pathan - 10L
UP Warriorz (UP)
Retained
Alyssa Healy
Deepti Sharma
Grace Harris
Tahlia McGrath
Sophie Ecclestone
Parshavi Chopra
Anjali Sarvani
Rajeshwari Gayakwad
Kiran Navgire
Lauren Bell
Shweta Sehrawat
S Yashasri
Laxmi Yadav
From the Mini Auction
Vrinda Dinesh - 130L
Danni Wyatt - 30L
Gouher Sultana - 30L
Poonam Khemnar - 10L
Saima Thakor - 10L