The dream of several former, senior, current and young women cricketers finally came to fruition as the inaugural Women’s Premier League (WPL) auction in Mumbai on Monday, February 13 not only marked a red-letter day for women’s cricket in India but was also a grand success. A total of 87 players found teams, INR 59.50 crore was spent, a few intense bidding wars, some bargain buys and naturally some heartbreaks as well – but after almost 7 hours, all five teams were able to build strong squads which is the key aspect of any auction.
Many may argue that a sixth team would have helped, given some big names (Indian and overseas) were ignored, however, if all goes well, who knows in a couple of years’ time, one more franchise could be added. Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) narrowly missed out on getting a team in the first-ever franchise auction and will hope that they too have a team in the WPL in a few years’ time.
While Indian vice-captain Smriti Mandhana was expectedly the costliest player at the auction after Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) splurged INR 3.4 crore, the star opener was incidentally also the first-ever player to be sold in the WPL. All-rounder Ash Gardner (Gujarat Giants) and Natalie Sciver-Brunt (Mumbai Indians) were the joint second-costliest players after being sold for INR 3.2 crore apiece.
Mandhana is likely to lead the RCB even though the side is filled with leaders in Ellyse Perry, Heather Knight, Sophie Devine and Dane van Niekerk while Gujarat Giants went berserk for all-rounders, getting as many as 8-9 in the squad and seven are likely to be part of the first XI. Mumbai Indians (MI) now have both national captains Rohit Sharma and Harmanpreet Kaur while Delhi Capitals (DC) build probably the strongest, most all-round squad ticking every single box while getting the serial trophy-winning captain in Meg Lanning. UP Warriorz got away with probably the steal of the auction in Alyssa Healy while getting the local girl Deepti Sharma, who is likely to lead the side with some of the top players in the world in Tahlia McGrath, Shabnim Ismail and Sophie Ecclestone.
How have all five teams shaped up? What does each of their strongest XI looks like? Here’s a peek into it:
Delhi Capitals: Shafali Verma, Sneha Deepthi, Jemimah Rodrigues, Meg Lanning (c), Alice Capsey, Marizanne Kapp, Tanya Bhatia, Radha Yadav, Tara Norris (A), Shikha Pandey, Jess Jonassen
Gujarat Giants: Beth Mooney (w/c), Deandra Dottin, Sabbineni Meghana, Harleen Deol, Hurley Gala, Dayalan Hemalatha, Sneh Rana, Ash Gardner, Annabel Sutherland, Mansi Joshi, Tanuja Kanwar
Mumbai Indians: Yastika Bhatia (wk), Dhara Gujjar, Hayley Matthews, Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Nat Sciver-Brunt, Amanjot Kaur, Pooja Vastrakar, Amelia Kerr, Sonam Yadav, Issy Wong, Saika Ishaque
Royal Challengers Bangalore: Smriti Mandhana (c), Sophie Devine, Ellyse Perry, Disha Kasat, Richa Ghosh (wk), Dane van Niekerk, Kanika Ahuja, Megan Schutt, Renuka Thakur, Preeti Bose, Komal Zanzad/Poonam Khemnar
UP Warriorz: Alyssa Healy (wk), Shweta Sehrawat, Kiran Navgire, Tahlia McGrath, Deepti Sharma (c), Devika Vaidya, Shabnim Ismail, Parshavi Chopra, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Sophie Ecclestone, Anjali Sarvani
A – player from associate nation
