Gripping bidding day ahead as WPL Season 2 auction less than 24 hours away

New Delhi [India], December 8 (ANI): The auction for the Women’s Premier League season 2 is less than 24 hours away as the five teams look to fill gaps in their teams by bagging the services of their desired players with the rival teams looking to derail the plans of other teams.

The WPL auction will take place on Saturday in Mumbai and the representatives of the five teams – Delhi Capitals, Gujarat Giants, Mumbai Indians, Royal Challengers Bangalore and UP Warriorz will look to bolster their teams.

This time an additional purse of Rs 1.5 crore will be made available to all the five teams besides the balance they are all left with from the last auction as well as after the recent player releases. Thirty slots, including nine overseas, will be filled at the auction.

Teams released their retention lists and overall 60 players were retained. Out of these 60 players, 21 were overseas stars. 29 players were released from their squads.

In the inaugural season of WPL, each team was given Rs 12 crore to build their squads. Only two teams, the champions Mumbai Indians and UP Warriorz were able to make full use of this money.

This time, Giants, who attained a bottom-place finish in the inaugural season, have the highest purse of Rs 5.95 crore, as they had released half their squad. They have ten slots, including three overseas to be filled. Warriorz, who finished mid-table and qualified for playoffs, have Rs 4 crore as their purse, which they can use to fill up five slots, including an overseas player.

Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), a star-studded unit consisting of Smriti Mandhana, Sophie Devine and Ellyse Perry, which failed to make an impact last year, has Rs 3.35 crore in their purse to fill up seven slots, including three overseas players. Delhi, the runners-up, have a purse of Rs 2.25 crore to fill three slots, including one overseas.

Mumbai has the smallest purse left, with Rs 2.1 crore. They have five slots to fill, including one overseas, according to a release.

The inaugural WPL held earlier this year was a huge success as many top cricketers from across the world participated in the 22-match affair, played at three venues in Mumbai. There has been no communication from the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) about dates for the next season and whether it will be played in a home-away format or not.

During last year’s auction, there were seven players who attracted bids as high as Rs 2 crore and three crossed the three-crore mark, namely Smriti Mandhana (Rs 3.4 crore for RCB), Ashleigh Gardner (Rs 3.2 crore for Gujarat Giants) and Nat Sciver-Brunt (Rs 3.2 crore for MI).

This time the players who are going to catch eyes in the auction will be India’s stalwart batter Smriti Mandhana, skipper Harmanpreet Kaur, rising batter Jemimah Rodrigues, England’s Issy Wong and Australia’s star Alyssa Healy.

Gujarat Giants squad (slots to fill 10): Ashleigh Gardner, Beth Mooney, Dayalan Hemalatha, Harleen Deol, Laura Wolvaardt*, Shabnam Shakil, Sneh Rana, Tanuja Kanwar.

Released: Annabel Sutherland, Ashwani Kumari, Georgia Wareham, Hurley Gala, Kim Garth, Mansi Joshi, Monica Patel, Parunika Sisodia, Sabbineni Meghana, Sophia Dunkley, Sushma Verma.

RCB’s list of retained players (slots to fill 7): Asha Shobana, Disha Kasat, Indrani Roy, Kanika Ahuja, Renuka Singh, Richa Ghosh, Shreyanka Patil, Smriti Mandhana, Ellyse Perry (overseas), Heather Knight (overseas), Sophie Devine (overseas).

Players released by RCB: Komal Zanzad, Poonam Khemnar, Preeti Bose, Sahana Pawar, Dane van Niekerk (overseas), Erin Burns (overseas), Megan Schutt (overseas).

Mumbai Indians squad (slots to fill 5): Amanjot Kaur, Amelia Kerr, Chloe Tryon, Harmanpreet Kaur, Hayley Matthews, Humaira Kazi, Issy Wong, Jintimani Kalita, Nat Sciver-Brunt, Pooja Vastrakar, Priyanka Bala, Saika Ishaque, Yastika Bhatia.

Released: Dhara Gujjar, Heather Graham, Neelam Bisht, Sonam Yadav.

Delhi Capitals retained players (slots to fill 3): Alice Capsey, Arundhati Reddy, Jemimah Rodrigues, Jess Jonassen, Laura Harris, Marizanne Kapp, Meg Lanning*, Minnu Mani, Poonam Yadav, Radha Yadav, Shafali Verma, Shikha Pandey, Sneha Deepthi, Taniyaa Bhatia and Titas Sadhu.

Released players: Aparna Mondal, Jasia Akhter and Tara Norris.

UP Warriorz players retained (slots to fill 5): Alyssa Healy (Overseas), Deepti Sharma, Tahlia Mcgrath (Overseas), Shweta Sehrawat, Grace Harris (Overseas), Kiran Navgire, Sophie Ecclestone (Overseas), Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Laxmi Yadav, Anjali Sarvani, Parshavi Chopra, S Yashashri and Lauren Bell (Overseas).

Released Players: Devika Vaidya, Shabnim Ismail*, Shivali Shinde, Simran Shaikh.