Most expensive players in WPL: Smriti Mandhana is highest paid cricketer
Smriti Mandhana was bought for ₹3.40 crore during the WPL 2023 auction, making her the costliest player in the history of the Women’s Premier League.
Cricket
The Women’s Premier League (WPL), which began in 2023, has done its part to shine the limelight on women’s cricket and the auction has become a highly-anticipated event in the calendar since.
Over the two editions held so far, the WPL auction has seen a handful of players attract some staggering bids.
Smriti Mandhana currently holds the tag of the most expensive player in WPL history after Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) shelled out ₹3.4 crore for the Indian batter at the inaugural WPL 2023 mega auction after a bidding war with Mumbai Indians (MI).
Though her first season with RCB ended in the league stage, Mandhana more than justified her billing by leading the team to the title in the 2024 WPL season.
Here’s a list of the top 10 most expensive players in WPL history.
Most expensive players in WPL
Australia all-rounder Ashleigh Gardner, who commanded a premium of ₹3.20 crore from Gujarat Giants in the 2023 WPL auction, and England international Nat Sciver-Brunt, who was bought by MI for the same price, are the joint second-most costliest players in the WPL to date.
Gardner and Sciver-Brunt are also the most expensive foreign players in the list of most expensive buys at WPL auctions.
India internationals Deepti Sharma (UP Warriorz), Jemimah Rodrigues and Shafali Verma (Delhi Capitals) along with Australian World Cup winners Annabel Sutherland (Delhi Capitals) and Beth Mooney (Gujarat Giants) are some of the other players who have broken the ₹2.00 crore barrier in the WPL.
Promising pacer Keshavee Gautam, who was bought by Gujarat Giants for ₹2.00 crore at the WPL 2024 auction, meanwhile, is the most expensive uncapped player in WPL history.
Gautam and Sutherland were also the most expensive players at the WPL 2024 auction.
Indian cricket captain Harmanpreet Kaur was acquired by MI for ₹1.80 crore in the 2023 player auction.
Unsurprisingly, a majority of the entries in the list for the most expensive players in WPL are from the 2023 auctions. It was the inaugural auction and the only WPL mega auction held to date.
The 2024 and 2025 WPL player auctions were both mini-auctions. The 2026 edition will be the second mega auction in the competition’s history and may see big-money acquisitions with teams looking to rehaul their squads for the next three seasons.