Do you know: Smriti Mandhana's WPL salary is higher than Babar Azam's PSL salary?

February 13, 2023 was a historic day for the cricketing world as the first-ever Women's Premier League auction took place in Mumbai. 449 players had been shortlisted for the historic event, and the inaugural tournament is set to commence on March 4. The very first name that went under the hammer was of Smriti Mandhana, India's vice-captain, who bagged a whopping INR 3.4 crore deal with the Royal Challengers Bangalore.

The auction started off with a bidding war between RCB and Mumbai Indians as the two franchises went all out to get the marquee player on their side. In the end, the Bangalore-based franchise acquired Mandhana's services, making her the most expensive player of the WPL 2023 auction. 

Interestingly, Mandhana's WPL salary of INR 3.4 crore is way highest than Pakistan skipper Babar Azam's Pakistan Super League salary. The prolific Pakistani batter, who will be representing the Peshawar Zalmi in the PSL 2023 will be drawing a salary of INR 1.38 crore, way lesser than what the Indian opening sensation will be getting at the first-ever WPL.

RCB go big at the WPL 2023 auction

With RCB acquiring the services of Smriti Mandhana, the prolific Indian opener will be among the captaincy options for the team as well. She has led the Indian side to victories on several occasions in the absence of all-format skipper Harmanpreet Kaur. Even during the Asia Cup in October 2022, she donned the captaincy hat and led India to victories in a couple of games. 

RCB played very strategically at the WPL auction on Monday. They spend almost half of their INR 12 crore purse in the first round by getting Mandhana, australia's star all-rounder Ellyse Perry and New Zealand skipper Sophie Devine to their side. They then spent big sums on India's U-19 winning player and ace wicketkeeper-batter Richa Ghosh and India's pace sensation Renuka Singh Thakur to further strengthen their squad.

RCB then sat silently in most of the rounds of the auction, before finally bouncing back during the accelerated auction. They got the services of English skipper Heather Knight, South African skipper Dane van Niekerk, and also roped in Australia's pace spearhead Megan Schutt to complete their squad. 

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