Mumbai : The Inaugural season of Women’s IPL is about to kick start in next 2 months, and the auction took place today at Mumbai, with 1525 players registered for it. Indian vice captain Smriti Mandana was sold to Royal Challengers Bangalore for a whopping 3.4 Crores, making her the costliest player of the auction. Other overseas players like Meg Lanning, Natalie Sciver, Ashleigh Gardner went through huge bids.
The Tournament consists of 5 teams – Mumbai Indians, Delhi Capitals, Royal Challengers Bangalore, Uttar Pradesh Warriors, Gujarat Giants. Each of the team shook the auction hall with strong buys in today’s auction.
Royal Challengers Bangalore opened their account with the costliest and fascinating bid of Smriti Mandan, Indian’s vice captain, who will lead them in the inaugural season. Along with her, star Aussie all rounder Ellyse Perry, fiery Indian keeper Richa Ghosh, Sophie Devine, Renuka Singh Thakur, Heather Knight, were among star players bought by them.
Mumbai Indians started off their campaign with buying the Indian Captain Harmanpreet Kaur for 1.8 Crores, along with star overseas and Indians like England’s star top order Batsman Natalie Sciver for 3.2 Crs,the costliest overseas player, India’s opener, Yastika Bhatia, Indian pacy all rounder Pooja Vastrakar, Amelia Kerr, West Indies star all rounder Hayley Matthews.
Delhi Capitals had some busy hours with key buys like Australian World Cup winning captain Meg Lanning, Indian fire power openers like Shafali Verma & Jeminah Rodrigues, Radha Yadav, pacer Shikha Pandey, U19 Star Titas Sadhu, veterans like Taniyaa Bhatia, Poonam Yadav, South African star Marizanne Kapp and so on.
Gujarat Giants started with buying Ashleigh Gardner for 3.2 Crores, making her joint costliest overseas player along with Sciver. Apart from this, Gujarat Giants made a sheer bidding for overseas strengths , buying the likes of overseas stars like Gardner, Australian star Batter Beth Mooney, English firepower Sophia Dunkley, Australian star all rounder Annabel Sutherland, West Indies legend Deandra Dottin, along with some key Indian players like Harleen Deol, Sneh Rana, Mansi Joshi.
Uttar Pradesh Warriors brought a balanced strength of Indian and overseas powers like ICC No. 1 T20I bowler Sophie Ecclestone, Australian Star Tahlia McGrath, South African dynamite Shabnim Ismail, Australian star opener Alyssa Healy, along with star Indian Women with likes of Deepti Sharma, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, U19 WC highest run scorer Shweta Sehrawat.
The inaugural auction of season 1 of Women’s IPL saw many legendary & emerging players bought by all 5 teams, it is hard to predict that who would shine at the end of the season, as all the teams are equally matched in strength.
FINAL SQUADS :
ROYAL CHALLENGERS BANGALORE :
Smriti Mandana, Sophie Devine, Ellyse Perry, Renuka Singh Thakur, Richa Ghosh, Erin Burns, Disha Kasat, Indrani Roy, Shreyanka Patil, Kanika Ahuya, Asha Shobana, Heather Knight, Dane Van Niekerk, Preeti Bose, Poonam Khemmar, Komal Zamzad, Megan Schutt, Sahana Pawar
MUMBAI INDIANS :
Harmanpreet Kaur, Natalie Sciver, Amelia Kerr, Pooja Vastrakar, Yastika Bhatia, Heather Graham, Isabelle Wang, Amanjot Kaur, Dhara Gujjas, Saika Ishaque, Hayley Matthews, Chloe Tryan, Humairaa Kaazi, Priyanka Bela, Sonam Yadav, Jintimani Kalita, Neelam Bisht
DELHI CAPITALS :
Jemimah Rodrigues, Meg Lanning, Shafali Verma, Radha Yadav, Shikha Pandey, Marizanne Kapp, Titas Sadhu, Alice Capsey, Tara Norris, Laura Harris, Jasia Akhter, Minnu Mani, Taniyaa Bhatia, Jess Jonassen, Sneha Deepti, Arundhati Reddy, Aparna Mondal, Poonam Yadav
GUJARAT GIANTS
Ashleigh Gardner, Beth Mooney, Sophia Dunkley, Annabel Sutherland, Harleen Deol, Deandra Dottin, Sneh Rana, Sabbieneni Meghna, Georgia Wareham, Mansi Joshi, Dayalan Hemalatha, Monica Patel, Taniya Kanwer, Sushma Verma, Hurly Gala, Ashwani Kumari, Parunika Sisodia, Shabnam Shakil
UTTAR PRADESH WARRIORS
Sophie Ecclestone, Deepti Sharma, Tahlia McGrath, Shabnim Ismail, Alyssa Healy, Anjali Sarvani, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Parshani Chopra, Shweta Sehrawat, S. Yashasri, Kiran Navgire, Grace Harris, Devika Vaidya, Lauren Bell, Laxmi Yadav, Simran Shaikh
