• Royal Challengers Bangalore acquired services of Smriti Mandhana for INR 3.40 crore.

  • The WPL Auction 2023 is taking place at the Jio World Convention Centre in Mumbai.

‘Welcome Queen’: Twitter erupts as Smriti Mandhana becomes the costliest buy at WPL Auction 2023
Smriti Mandhana (Photo Source: Twitter)

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Team India vice-captain Smriti Mandhanaa went into the record books after becoming the costliest buy at the inaugural auction for the Women’s Premier League (WPL) 2023. In fact, she was the first player to be auctioned off at the bidding event which is taking place at the Jio World Convention Centre in Mumbai.

Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) acquired her services for a whopping amount of ₹3.40 crore.

Mandhana, who was placed in the Marquee Set 1 with a base price of ₹50 lakh, induced an intense bidding war between Mumbai Indians (MI) and RCB. A swift set of bids for the left-handed batter soon breached ₹1 crore, ₹2 crore and ₹3 crore mark, before Nita Ambani’s MI pulled out of the race.

The 26-year-old Mandhana made his international debut in 2013 and was named ICC Women’s Cricketer of the Year in 2018. She was also nominated in the top three for the ICC Women’s T20I Cricketer of The Year in 2021 and 2022.

The left-handed batter has scored 2651 runs in 112 T20Is so far which includes 20 centuries.

Here’s how Twitter reacted:

https://twitter.com/Abhicricket18/status/1625063167780085760

The first season of the WPL will be played at the DY Patil Stadium (Mumbai) and Brabourne Stadium (Navi Mumbai) from March 3 to 26.

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CATEGORY: Smriti Mandhana Women Cricket Women's Premier League

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