Simran costliest player in WPL mini-auction
Mumbai cricketer Simran Shaikh became the costliest player of the Women’s Premier League mini-auction after being bought by Gujarat Giants for Rs 1.90 crore even as veteran India player Sneh Rana went unsold.
On a day when five teams competed to fill 19 slots from a pool of 120 players to finalise their squads for next year’s WPL, the other top money earners were West Indies stalwart Deandra Dottin (Gujarat Giants — Rs 1.70 crore), 16-year-old U19 wicketkeeper-batter G Kamalini (Mumbai Indians — Rs 1.60 crore), Prema Rawat (Royal Challengers Bengaluru — Rs 1.20 crore) and N Charani (Delhi Capitals — Rs 55 lakh).
Delhi Capitals and Gujarat Giants were involved in a bidding war for Simran before the latter raised the bar to net her. Simran, 22, is a middle-order batter. She played a few matches for UP Warriorz during the 2023 WPL season. She made 176 runs in 11 matches for Mumbai in the Senior Women’s T20 Trophy in October-November.
All-rounder Dottin, who is currently in India with the West Indies team for the white-ball series, was the costliest among overseas players and was bought by the Giants for the second time in the auction.
Dottin, 33, was one of the three players with base price of Rs 50 lakh and saw UP Warriorz too make a wholehearted bid for her before Gujarat Giants upped the amount. Dottin was signed by Gujarat Giants for Rs 60 lakh ahead of WPL 2023, but could not play the tournament as the franchise failed to obtain a medical certificate before the season.
No capped India player was bought during the auction, which included senior player Rana, who captained Gujarat in the first edition.
