The 2026 season of the Women’s Premier League (WPL) will be the fourth edition of arguably the most high-profile T20 franchise competition in women’s cricket. And for the first time since the league’s inception in 2023, a mega auction was held ahead of the start of the competition.
After the first-ever auction, the past two seasons have seen all the teams retain a majority of their squads before mini-auctions. However, this time around, a team could only retain a maximum of five players.
Today, we will look at the team that finished third last season, the Gujarat Giants, the players they retained, and the buys they made in the mega-auction.
Before last season, when the Giants finished third, they had been at the bottom of the table for two seasons in a row. And for one of the more underperforming teams in the league, it came to no one’s surprise that despite five retentions being available, the Ahmedabad-based team used only two.
The total purse for each team to build their squad is Rs. 15 crore. The first retention guideline price is Rs. 2.5 crore, for the second is Rs. 2.5 crore, the third being Rs. 1.75 crore, the fourth being Rs. 1 crore, and the fifth retention priced at Rs. 50 lakh. A team can, at max, retain only three Indian and two overseas players. If a team does use all five retention slots, they have to use one of them for an uncapped player.
The Gujarat Giants retained only two players, both of them being overseas. The two players are the two captains this team has had in the last three years. The first retainer for Rs. 3.5 crore is the Australian all-rounder Ashleigh Garner. Meanwhile, Gujarat’s second and final retention is veteran Australian batter Beth Mooney.
Despite having one of the biggest purses going into the auction, the Gujarat Giants seemed to hesitate in making big bids early on. While they did make the first buy of the evening, getting Sophie Devine for Rs. 2 crore, they did not spend more than one crore on any other player.
In the early rounds, the Giants made two more buys, Indian pacer Renuka Singh Thakur for Rs. 60 lakh, and using an RTM card on Bharti Fulmali for Rs. 70 lakh.
They also bought Indian spinner Titas Sadhu for Rs. 30 lakh. Meanwhile, their first and only big buy in the accelerated round was Kashvee Gautam for Rs. 65 lakh.
Other accelerated round picks, these being the players that went unsold earlier, are where the Gujarat Giants shone. They bought Australian leggie Georgia Wareham for Rs. 1 crore, Australian all-rounder Kim Garth for Rs. 50 lakh, Indian wicketkeeper Yastika Bhatia for Rs. 50 lakh, English batter Danni Wyatt-Hodge for Rs. 50 lakh, and Indian spinner Rajeshwari Gayakwad for Rs. 40 lakh.
The following are the remainder of Gujarat’s buys from the accelerated rounds –
- Kanika Ahuja – Rs. 30 lakh
- Tanuja Kanwar – Rs. 45 lakh
- Anushka Sharma – Rs. 45 lakh
- Happy Kumari – Rs. 10 lakh
- Shivani Singh – Rs. 10 lakh
- Ayushi Soni – Rs. 30 lakh
Gujarat Giants Full Squad for WPL 2025
Here is the Gujarat Giants Full Squad for WPL 2025 after the auction
Batters – Beth Mooney (O), Bharati Fulmali, Yastika Bhatia, Danni Wyatt-Hodge (O), Shivani Singh
All-rounders – Ashleigh Gardner (O), Sophie Devine (O), Georgia Wareham (O), Kashvee Gautam, Kim Garth (O), Tanuja Kanwar, Anushka Sharma, Kanika Ahuja, Ayushi Soni
Bowlers – Renuka Singh Thakur, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Titas Sadhu, Happy Kumari
*O – Overseas
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