The WPL 2023 Auction is being held at the Jio World Convention Centre in Mumbai on February 13 and saw the five WPL franchises bidding with Mallika Advani being the auctioneer for the event.
A total of 448 players will go under the hammer with 246 of them being Indians and 163 overseas players, of which eight players are from the associate nations. The players in the auction register have five different slabs of base prices - INR 50 lakh, INR 40 lakh, INR 30 lakh, INR 20 lakh, and INR 10 lakh, with 24 players choosing to be slotted in the top bracket.
Smriti Mandhana with INR 3.40 crores by RCB and Natalie Sciver with INR 3.20 cr bid by MI were the two costliest buys at the auction thus far.
India’s pace bowling all-rounder Pooja Vastrakar saw a bidding war between DC and MI and after a few bids, she was bought by MI for INR 1.90 crores. MI also bought Indian wicketkeeper-batter Yastika Bhatia as well for INR 1.50 crores after beating other bids by Gujarat Giants and UP Warriorz.
Explosive keeper-batter Richa Ghosh, who was also part of the India U19 T20 World Cup 2023 winning squad, was bought by Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) for INR 1.90 crores and she will join Smriti Mandhana at the franchise.
Apart from them, left-arm pacer Anjali Sarvani went to UP Warriorz for INR 55 lakhs and experienced spinner Rajeshwari Gayakwad also joined her in the UP team for her base price of INR 40 lakhs.
