Mandhana WPL 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.

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Mandhana WPL Salary More Than Babar Azam’s PSL Salary

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 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.

The very first name that went under the hammer was India’s vice-captain

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 Smriti Mandhana. India’s vice-captain bagged a whopping INR 3.4 crore deal with the Royal Challengers Bangalore.

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Bidding war between RCB and Mumbai Indians as the two franchises

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.

RCB go big at the WPL 2023 auction

With RCB acquiring the services of Smriti, 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.

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RCB played very strategically at the WPL auction

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 Smriti. 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

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, and South African skipper Dane van Niekerk and also roped in Australia’s pace spearhead Megan Schutt to complete their squad.