UP Warriorz was the biggest spender in the WPL auction.
| Photo Credit: X@UPWarriorz
At Thursday’s mega auction ahead of the Women’s Premier League’s fourth edition, UP Warriorz was the biggest spender by virtue of having a purse of ₹14.5 crore. Having retained just the uncapped Shweta Sehrawat for ₹50 lakh before the auction, Warriorz utilised their resources to land the most expensive signing of the day in Deepti Sharma. The Indian all-rounder, fresh from winning the ODI World Cup, was bought back for ₹3.2 crore with the Right to Match (RTM) option.
Among the franchise’s other big-money signings were Shikha Pandey for ₹2.4 crore, Meg Lanning for ₹1.9 crore and Phoebe Litchfield for ₹1.2 crore. Entrusted with making all the manoeuvres at the auction table was Abhishek Nayar, who was assistant coach of the Indian men’s team under Gautam Gambhir from July 2024 to March 2025. Nayar was appointed as the head coach of Warriorz in July, and has also been given charge of Kolkata Knight Riders in the IPL.
“I think you always feel good after any auction because you get 80% of the players you want. I am very happy in that regard,” Nayar told the The Hindu. “But I also believe that you don’t win due to an auction, you have to play well on the ground.”
The former all-rounder is buoyed by the challenge of coaching a WPL franchise for the first time. “I am quite excited about challenging myself as a coach. I have always believed in getting out of one’s comfort zone. When I work with players, I try to do that with them. And I think this is one step in that direction,” he stated.
Asked about the decision to not retain Deepti beforehand and bring her back at the auction, Nayar reasoned: “We just wanted to have the purse. Our first retention (capped) would have been ₹3.5 crore. We got her at ₹3.2 crore. It’s still some money saved and allows you to get one extra player. The mindset was we were going to get her.”
Published – November 28, 2025 05:38 pm IST
