Bengaluru: West Indies’ big-hitting all-rounder Deandra Dottin, Mumbai batter Simran Shaikh & exciting India U19 wicketkeeper-batter G Kamalini have fetched big paychecks in the ongoing WPL 2025 player auction here on Sunday.
For acquiring Deandra, one of only three players with a reserve price of Rs 50 lakh, Gujarat Giants and UP Warriorz were in a fierce tussle before the Adani Sportsline-owned franchise roped her in for Rs 1.7 crore.
But the bigger story of the auctions so far has been the deals for uncapped players like Simran, who was roped in by Gujarat Giants for Rs 1.9 crore after edging out Delhi Capitals.
Simran, who was with UP Warriorz for WPL 2023, was a member of Mumbai winning Senior Women’s T20 Trophy and of India E team winning Challenger Trophy.
For acquiring hard-hitting Kamalini, who hit 44 not out in India’s nine-wicket win over Pakistan in the U19 Asia Cup game, Mumbai Indians shelled out Rs 1.6 crore after a fierce bidding war with DC. MI did have a look at Kamalini during their pre-auction trials.
Hailing from Madurai, the 16-year-old Kamalini trains at the Super Kings Academy in Chennai, and came into limelight after hitting 311 runs in eight games, as Tamil Nadu won the U19 Women’s T20 Trophy in October. She will be MI’s second wicketkeeper-batter option after Yastika Bhatia.
Other notable uncapped Indian player to get a big bucks in the auction was Uttarakhand all-rounder Prema Rawat, who was roped in by Royal Challengers Bengaluru for Rs 1.2 crore.
Prema, who bowls leg-spin, played a key role in Mussoorie Thunders winning the inaugural Uttarakhand Premier League (UPL) this year.
Though DC missed out on Kamalini, they were successful in acquiring Uttarakhand wicketkeeper Nandini Kashyap, who got her first India call-up for T20Is against the West Indies, for her base price of Rs 10 lakh.
Nandini was the leading run scorer in the Senior Women’s T20 Challenger Trophy and the third-highest run-getter in the Senior Women’s T20 Trophy while playing for Uttarakhand in this domestic season. She will be DC’s second wicketkeeper in the team after Taniyaa Bhatia.
DC and MI were also in a fight to get uncapped India all-rounder N Charani, who bowls let-arm spin, before the former got her in for Rs 55 lakh. MI also got in South Africa all-rounder Nadine de Klerk for Rs 30 lakh. The five teams will now have a chance to complete their remaining slots through the upcoming accelerated auction round.
(IANS)
