WPL 2023: 5 Players who turned out to be steal deals in auction

The much-anticipated Women’s Premier League (WPL) auction took place on Monday, February 13 at the JIO World Convention Centre in Mumbai. The auction for the top-tier league unfurled with the first name of Smriti Mandhana sparking a massive bidding war and eventually getting bagged for INR 3.40 crore deal by the Royal Challengers Bangalore.

All franchises have already begun ideating plans ahead of the new season and had noted down specific players to target at the auction in order to bolster their squads. As many as 409 players were pruned from the list of 1,525 cricketers that had registered for the WPL auction. Of the registered players, 246 Indians were part of the auction whereas 163 players were from the overseas nations, which included eight players that belong to the associate nations.

All eyes were on the numerous high-profile players that were up for grabs on the auction block. While some of the players sparked off massive bidding wars, a few of them failed to attract much attention despite their vast experience and impressive performances. In this article, we take a look at the five steal buys among the list of top players in the auction.

5 Steal Buys among top players in the WPL 2023 Auction-

5. Meg Lanning – INR 1.10 Crore

Australia skipper Meg Lanning will don the colours of Delhi Capitals as the franchise procured her services for INR 1.10 Cr. The Delhi-based franchise were involved in the bidding process with Mumbai Indians before the latter backed out of the deal.

Lanning has been tremendously successful during her stint with the national side as she has two Women’s Cricket World Cup and four ICC Women’s T20 World Cup titles. The seasoned cricketer has featured in 127 T20I matches for Australia, aggregating 3,252 runs at a strike rate of 116.06 which also includes two centuries.

The Aussie skipper entered the auction with a base price of INR 50 lakh and many hoped that she would garner massive attention for her illustrious career and impressive performances. Despite this, franchises went only till the 1.1 crore-mark for the veteran Aussie player to secure her services.