All set for WPL 2025 auction; Nandini, Kamalini may break the bank
While 29 overseas players signed up for auction and are in fray to fill just five slots, attention in upcoming mini auction will be more on 91 Indian players
New Delhi: On Sunday, the third Women’s Premier League (WPL) player auction will see five teams vying to fill 19 slots overall from the pool of 120 players and complete their squads for the 2025 season at the premises of ITC Gardenia in Bengaluru.
While 29 overseas players have signed up for the auction and are in fray to fill just five slots, the attention in the upcoming mini auction will be more on 91 Indian players — nine capped and rest of them uncapped. Nisarg Naik, a Mumbai-based cricket talent scout, has travelled around the country since late 2021 for scouting women cricketers and began recommending players to WPL franchises before the inaugural season began in 2023.
Naik believes wicketkeeper-batters Nandini Kashyap and G Kamalini can become the most sought-after names in the 2025 WPL auction due to their recent good performances. “I will keep names of Nandini and Kamalini as them being sought after by every WPL franchise in the auction. Speaking with the team’s scouts in the U19 tri-series in Pune, many have spotted Kamalini, who’s not a new face to all the people who are following women’s cricket.”
“I saw her play live in the matches (during the tri-series in Pune), and I was left totally impressed by the talent she possesses. There won’t be any surprise in seeing that teams will be definitely going behind her. It’s because there’s no impactful left-handed batter in Indian cricket after Smriti (Mandhana). If any team does a long-term investment in her and develops her skills, then she can be the next big thing in future.”
“For Nandini, I want to mention that she was someone who didn’t have a great last two years in the domestic circuit. But she did good in Uttarakhand Premier League this year, and has been putting in consistent performances in the domestic circuit. Though she needs to put in work on her running between wickets, she is a very good player, and her strike-rate is also above 100, so teams will be looking at that as well,” said Naik in an interview.
Nandini was the leading run scorer in the Senior Women’s T20 Challenger Trophy and the third-highest run-getter in the Senior Women’s T20 Trophy while playing for Uttarakhand. On Friday, she earned a maiden call-up to the Indian team for the T20I series against the West Indies starting in Navi Mumbai on Sunday. On the other hand, Kamalini hit 311 runs in eight games, as Tamil Nadu won the U19 Women’s T20 Trophy in October.