A total of 87 players will be making history in the first edition of WPL as they went for lucrative amounts in the auction. However, as only four foreign players are allowed in the starting team of six franchises, a lot of high-profile foreign players went unsold.
A bidding war saw Ashleigh Gardner being sold for 3.2 crores while her compatriot Beth Mooney went for a whopping 2 crores. As expected the Indians fetched big money with the likes of Smriti Mandhana and Harmanpree Kaur going for 3.4 crores and 1.8 crores respectively.
However, not a single club showed interest in these high-profile names. These players remain a nice backup option for injuries and the WPL teams may take note of these.
#5 Alana King
Leg spinner Alana King went unsold after setting her base price at 40 lakhs. King has Indian roots after her parents emigrated to Melbourne from Chennai. The 27-year-old has a hat-trick to her name in the Hundred while playing for Trent Rockets. Later in the tournament, she bowled ten dot balls in succession, becoming the first player to achieve the feat.
Alana was a part of the team that won the 2022 Women’s T20 Challenge. She took three wickets in the finals by conceding 32 runs as the likes of Deepti Sharma, Sneh Rana, and Radha Yadav failed to read her googlies.
#4 Danni Wyatt
Setting a base price of 50 lakhs, Dany Wyatt found no takers. The right-handed batting all-rounder has two international T20I centuries to her name, including one against India in 2018.
In her 13-year long international career in T20Is, Wyatt has notched 2276 runs with an average of 21.27 and a strike rate of 124.5. A miserly economy rate of 5.65 in international cricket with 46 wickets from 140 matches makes her a decent all-rounder in any team.
#3 Suzie Bates
Veteran Suzie Bates went unsold in the WPL auction as no one was interested at her base price of Rs. 30 lacs. With age against the favor of the 35-year-old New Zealand player, the clubs decided to give her a miss.
Bates has 12 ODI centuries, with the most recent one coming against Pakistan in 2022. A knock of 124 not out against South Africa in 2018 also makes her a reckoning force in T20 cricket.
#2 Laura Wolvaardt
Laura Wolvaardt was another opener to miss out
The 23-year-old Laura Wolvaardt went unsold in the WPL auction at her base price of Rs. 30 lacs. The South African international has four half-centuries in T20 cricket, including one against India.
India has a plethora of opening batters and that saw even Bates go unsold. Wolvaardt has plenty of time on her hand and with the recent World Cup being held in South Africa, she has a chance to prove her heroics and gain a place in the next edition of WPL.
#1 Chamari Athapaththu
Sri Lankan international Chamari Athapaththu was also unsold at the recent WPL auction. No one was interested to place a bid on her base price of Rs. 30 lacs. The left-hander is a hard hitter of the ball and can strike sixes with ease.
The 33-year old has played 107 T20I innings but has a strike rate of only 102.70. Her approach of starting the game slowly can give fruitful results if she manages to hang on for a bit. Chamari remains one of the few batters around the world to score a 100 against Australia in Australia when she achieved the feat in 2019 in a losing effort.