New Delhi: Uncapped Indian players Simran Shaikh, G Kamalini and Prema Rawat were the most sought-after players at the Women’s Premier League auction 2025, held in Bengaluru on Sunday.
A total of 120 players were up for auction for 19 slots that forced the five franchises of the tournament to focus on buying emerging home-grown talents.
Simran Shaikh, who has a base price of Rs 10 lakh, attracted the most interest as she was snapped by up Gujarat Giants for Rs 1.90 crore, making the batter the topmost buy of the day.
Gujarat were the most active team at the bidding table, also shelling out Rs 1.70 for the West Indies all-rounder, who was one of the only three players with base price of Rs 50 lakh and attracted bids from UP Warriorz as well.
Gujarat had the biggest purse of Rs 4.4 core before the start of the auction and utilised it to outbid UP and Delhi Capitals for Dottin and Shaikh, respectively.
Keeper-batter G Kamalini was the third most expensive player with Mumbai Indians buying her for Rs 1.60 crore. The India U-19 opener received significant interest from Delhi Capitals as bidding started from her base price of Rs 10 lakh.
But after back-and-forth bidding continued between the two teams, the promising teenager from Tamil Nadu went to Mumbai.
All-rounder Prema Rawat also began with a base price of Rs 10 lakh. But as franchises placed bids, it upped the price for the promising legspinner. Ultimately Royal Challengers Bengaluru bagged her for Rs 1.20 crore.
“We’ve been watching the local competitions closely, the T20s and the Challengers. She stands out in terms of her hitting power and strike rate, and complements the other local Indian players (we’ve got in the squad). To have someone like her, potentially in our top six-seven, who can hit sixes straightaway, completes us. We were targeting her,” Gujarat coach Michael Klinger said, as quoted by ESPNcricinfo.
Capped Indian players unsold
The three uncapped Indian players fetched a cumulative price of Rs 4.70 crore. Among the 91 Indian players who were on offer, only nine were capped, who all went unsold, with franchises placing bids for only uncapped Indians and capped overseas got bids.
Teams needed to have 18 members in their squads. Delhi Capitals had the smallest purse of Rs 2.5 crore, which they utilised to make a few steal deals.
With four slots to fill, they secured wicketkeepers Nandini Kashyap (Rs 10 lakh) and Sarah Bryce (Rs 10 lakh), all-rounder N Charani (Rs 55 lakh), and young talent Niki Prasad (Rs 10 lakh).
“Very good auction for us to be honest. I’ve been with this WPL team for two seasons now, watching them closely, involved in the auction and everything. And we are far stronger squad than we were last year, with Nandini and Sarah in the squad now, we are looking very good,” Delhi’s director of cricket for WPL Sourav Ganguly said.
A total of Rs 9.05 crore was sent for 19 players by the franchises at the auction.
The players bought at auction
Delhi Capitals: N Charani, Nandini Kashyap, Sarah Bryce (Scotland), Niki Prasad
Gujarat Giants: Simran Shaikh, Deandra Dottin (WI), Danielle Gibson (Eng), Prakashika Naik
Mumbai Indians: G Kamalini, Nadine de Klerk (SA), Akshita Maheshwari, Sanskriti Gupta
RCB: Prema Rawat, Joshitha JV, Raghvi Bist, Jagravi Pawar (all uncapped)
UP Warriorz: Alana King (Aus), Arushi Goel, Kranti Goud
A total of 120 players were up for the WPL auction to fill in 19 slots with five franchises focussing on buying emerging home-grown talents. Cricket Sports News: Latest Cricket News, Cricket Live Score, Sports Breaking News from Sports Today
