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Women's Premier League's (WPL) auction unfurled with a lot of drama which saw umpteen cricketers including Indians bagging jackpot deals. Five franchises broke bank to rope in their their favourite players for the slugfest which is slated to kick off from March 4. In the glitzy auction, Smriti Mandhan hogged the most limelight as the flamboyant southpaw was acquired by Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) for a whopping sum of Rs 3.40 Crore after a tug of war with Mumbai Indian (MI). The star India opener was the first player to go under the hammer and she ended up being the most expensive buys of the action-packed auction day.
Let's have a look at the list of most expensive buys of WPL auction so far:
Smriti Mandhana (India): Rs 3.4 Crore (Royal Challengers Banglore
Ashleigh Gardner (Australia): Rs 3.2 Crore (Gujarat Giants)
Natalie Sciver Brunt (England): Rs 3.2 Crore (Mumbai Indians)
Deepti Sharma (India): Rs 2.6 Crore (UP Warriors)
Jemimah Rodrigues (India): Rs 2.2 Crore (Delhi Capitals)
Meanwhile, India skipper Harmanpreet Kaur failed to make the top tier as she was signed by Mumbai Indians for Rs 1.80 crore in the auction.
Meanwhile, the second costliest Indian player so far was all-rounder Deepti who was bought by UP Warriorz for Rs 2.6 crore. Delhi Capitals got their first player of the auction as they successfully bid for Jemimah Rodrigues at Rs 2.2 crore. Indian opener and U-19 T20 World Cup winning captain Shafali Verma gets a successful bid of Rs 2 crore by Delhi Capitals. One of the prominent picks during the first round was Australia’s off-spin all-rounder Ashleigh Gardner, who was bought by Gautam Adani-owned Gujarat Giants for Rs 3.20 crore.
As far as overseas players are concerned, RCB has already exhausted Rs 5.60 crore out of Rs 12 crore purse and they need to get another 12 players with the rest of the Rs 6.40 crore to have a mandatory squad size of 15 players. UP Warriorz also got England left-arm spinner Sophie Ecclestone on board for Rs 1.80 crore. Star Australian all-rounder Ellyse Perry received a cool Rs 1.70 crore winning bid from RCB who also got New Zealand skipper Sophie Devine dirt cheap at base price of Rs 50 lakh.
