WPL auction: Athapaththu misses out, Ismail ‘Aali Re’, Kashvee, Vrinda, Amandeep’s ‘X-factor’

Chamari Athapaththu went unsold at the Women's Premier League 2 auction. (Photo: Getty Images)

Uncapped next-gen Indians hit pay dirt

The inception of the Women’s Premier League (WPL) lay on the premise of building a robust pipeline of young Indian talent for the national team to acquire the kind of invincibility about them that the domestic structure in Australia has equipped their national team with. On Saturday, the acquisition of youngsters Kashvee Gautam and Vrinda Dinesh for an eye-watering Rs 2 crore and Rs 1.3 crore by Gujarat Giants and UP Warriorz, respectively, at the WPL mini auction in Mumbai served as an indication of that ethos as well as the onus franchises place on building a strong core of up-and-coming domestic talent within their set-ups.

The pair fetched the highest bids among the 109 uncapped players shortlisted for the auction ahead of the 2024 season. Gautam, a 20-year-old right-arm seamer who can be handy with the bat, too, and memorably took 10 wickets in an innings against Arunachal Pradesh in the Women's Under-19 One Day Trophy in 2020, attracted bids from Royal Challengers Bangalore and Warriorz, too, before Giants snapped her up for 20 times her base price of 10 lakh. Her final bid was worth more than even the 1.8 crore Mumbai Indians shelled out for India captain Harmanpreet Kaur at the inaugural WPL auction in February.

Dinesh, a top-order Karnataka batter, who, like Gautam, was part of the recently concluded India A series in Mumbai, drew the attention of the same three franchises before Warriorz won the bidding bar. The 22-year-old is known for her ability to clear the rope at will and idolises former Australia captain Meg Lanning. At Warriorz, she will play under Lanning’s successor, Alyssa Healy.

“We wanted to obviously fill the gaps from last year,” Kshemal Waingankar, COO, Capri Sports, which owns the franchise, said at the WPL presser. “Indian talent is going to be at a premium. We couldn't take some of the players that we wanted in from the Indian squad last year, so we wanted to obviously strengthen our balance a little bit more and so we went for probably the next best crop.”

Athapaththu’s “shocking” non-selection

For a second WPL auction in a row, Sri Lanka captain Chamari Athapaththu, the big-hitting left-hand batting allrounder, failed to find any takers. That she was the MVP at the recently concluded WBBL in Australia mattered little during the auction on Saturday, as did her standout performances during Sri Lanka’s historic first-ever white-ball series victory over England in September, or that her base price was the lowest – Rs 30 lakh – among the brackets capped internationals could opt for.

Mumbai Indians head coach Charlotte Edwards admitted that she expected Athapaththu to be one of the “three main targets” for teams alongside Australia quick-bowling allrounder Annabel Sutherland and fast bowler Shabnim Ismail. However, no franchises raised the paddle for the 33-year-old Athapaththu in the main round nor was her name nominated by them for the accelerated rounds.

“She wasn’t necessarily on our radar, but I thought she was going to be one of the top three picks,” said Edwards. “But, absolutely, I'm shocked that she didn't get taken … She's a high-quality player who's performed brilliantly over the last 12 months in franchise cricket….”

One of the reasons that may have worked against Athapaththu is that she had put herself in the allrounders bracket, where her name came up after Sutherland’s, based on the lucky draw that shortlisted players are sequenced according to at the auction. Sutherland was picked by Mumbai and it’s anybody’s guess if classifying herself as a frontline capped batter, the first set to go under the hammer on Saturday, would have helped Athapaththu’s chances. Australia left-hand batter Phoebe Litchfield and England right-hand opener Danni Wyatt, who was overlooked in the first WPL auction, both landed bids in that category earlier in the day.

RCB on-song on paper again

The Smriti Mandhana-led side had a forgettable season in 2023 despite having one of the strongest squads on paper. Ellyse Perry, Heather Knight, Sophie Devine and Mandhana herself headlined a stellar line-up of top-flight players from around the world, but their fourth-place finish in the five-team competition left little to write home about.

Having released a raft of players ahead of the WPL 2.0 auction, the franchise, now helmed by newly appointed head coach Luke Williams, made well-calculated moves in bolstering their left-arm spin-bowling stocks with the experienced, out-of-favour Indian international Ekta Bisht and Australia bowling allrounder Sophie Molineux. England pace-bowling allrounder Kate Cross, who has many a time single-handedly consigned India to heartbreaking defeats, stood out as another astute acquisition as did Australia wristspinner Georgia Wareham, a T20 World Cup winner.

“Both [Cross and Bisht] are extremely experienced cricketers,” said Australia’s Williams, who replaced Ben Sawyer as Royal Challengers head coach. “I think for the WPL to have that experience at the international level and in Indian conditions is important; we were really keen to get that experience. Kate’s able to bowl in different phases and Ekta has obviously played a lot of cricket.

“With Georgia, she is a multi-faceted player. Not only her legspin, but her fielding and batting are able to impact games. So, with overseas players, to be able to have an impact in all three facets was important and appealing for us. So, that was a primary reason for our interest in Georgia.”

Mumbai central: Ismail and Amandeep add spunk

Recently retired from international cricket? Thirty-five-years old? Neither matters, if you are Shabnim Ismail. Released by Warriorz ahead of the auction, Ismail, the former South Africa quick who bid the international game goodbye earlier this year after spirited runners-up finish with her team at the T20 World Cup at home, was acquired by the inaugural WPL champions Mumbai Indians for an impressive 1.20 crore.

Still a sought-after name on the T20 franchise-cricket circuit, a gun fielder and one of the fastest bowlers in the women’s game ever, Ismail received bids from Royal Challengers and Giants, too, before the Harmanpreet-led Mumbai had the final say.

“She’s been a wonderful fast bowler for a number of years and is someone we've had in mind. You never know how an auction is going to play out,” explained coach Edwards. “We thought she was going to go for more money than what she did. We feel very fortunate to have picked her up and really she's going to strengthen our squad.”

While Ismail made waves in the auction room, the unheralded, uncapped 20-year-old left-arm wristspinner Amandeep Kaur from Haryana also made an imprint on the day’s proceedings, with Mumbai snapping her up for her base price of Rs 10 lakh.

“When I turned up at the training ground on Tuesday in Mumbai, I saw this girl straightaway, and she was someone the scouts had talked to me about, but obviously seeing her the first time on Tuesday, we were very excited,” Edwards said about Amandeep, who can bowl fingerspin, too. “We thought she was probably going to be high up on other people's list, so we're very happy to have her in our in our camp and obviously with what she does is very different and that's something, again, what we wanted to bring to our squad – a bit of X-factor, and we might have that in Amandeep.”