“Everyone knows Mandhana and Perry, we were pretty committed to the couple of people we wanted to get,” RCB director of cricket Mike Hesson said. “We’re very happy to get such quality players. It’s a dream result for us to get Mandhana, Perry and Devine. Smriti has got plenty of captaincy experience and is familiar with the Indian conditions, so highly likely [she’ll be captain].”
Gardner, Nat Sciver-Brunt most expensive overseas buys
Ashleigh Gardner, the No.1. allrounder in women’s T20Is, attracted the joint second-highest bid of INR 3.2 crore (USD 390,000 approx) from Gujarat Giants, alongside England’s Nat Sciver-Brunt, who was bought by Mumbai for the same price.
Capitals sign India’s Gen Z
Capitals bought India batters Jemimah Rodrigues (INR 2.2 crore – USD 268,000 approx) and Shafali Verma (INR 2 crore – USD 244,000 approx), alongside Australia captain Lanning, giving them plenty of leadership options.
“No, it’s too early for that, but of course there are captaincy options in those names,” Parth Jindal, the co-owner of Capitals, said. “One is an India Under-19 captain [Shafali], another is a legend of the game in Meg Lanning. Jemimah too is a wonderful reader of the game. But it all depends on the coach at the end of it, also depends on who else we pick up.”
Under-19 World Cup winners who got picked
Shafali and Ghosh, by virtue of being internationals, were grouped in the capped sets of players and predictably went for big money. With all five teams having established a core group of players by the time the uncapped players came up for bidding, it was only a select few from the victorious India Under-19 squad that got picked. Among those to get bought were Bengal’s Titas Sadhu (Capitals), Delhi’s Shweta Sehrawat (Warriorz), UP’s Sonam Yadav (Mumbai Indians) and Parshavi Chopra (Warriorz), Andhra’s Shabnam MD (Giants) and Mumbai’s Hurley Gala (Giants).
Low demand for Associate Players
Associate players were in low demand, with only two of them – USA’s Tara Norris and UAE’s Mahika Gaur – being shortlisted for the accelerated rounds.
Norris, the 24-year-old left-arm seamer from Philadelphia, was snapped up by Capitals for INR 10 lakh (USD 12,200 approx). She plays much of her cricket in England and was the second-highest wicket-taker for Southern Vipers in their charge to the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy in 2020. She was also part of the Loughborough Lightning in the Kia Super League.
At 16, Gaur could have been the youngest overseas signing and even attracted a bid from the Giants, only for them to be told they had exhausted their quota of six overseas players.