‘Building a young team, amazing!’ – Fans elated as Delhi bags Shafali Verma for a price of 2 crores in Women’s T20 League auction

The Delhi team had a slow start to the Women’s T20 League auction as they had no player with them in the first round. However, things quickly changed as they purchased three back-to-back players in the second round. One of the biggest buys for the team was Shafali Verma.

Shafali Verma, India’s U-19 women’s world cup-winning captain, was signed by Delhi for a reported 2 crore rupees. Following her performance in the inaugural age category world cup in South Africa, the 19-year-old player was expected to fetch a high price.

The team had to wait before making their first auction purchase, but once they did, they made up for lost bids by adding Indian star Jemimah Rodriguez and Australian captain Meg Lanning along with Shafali. The Delhi team has been clearly targeting young players just like they have done for their Men’s team.

In the meantime, Shafali recently guided the Indian Women’s U-19 team to a 20-20 World Cup win. With this, she became the only women’s Indian captain with an Apex Cricket Council trophy in her kitty. She is currently with the senior Indian team in South Africa for the Women’s 20-20 World Cup.

Smriti Mandhana, the Indian vice-captain, on the other hand, was one of the names that everyone expected to go big in the auction. As expected, she went for a high price, with the Bangalore team paying 3.4 crores for her. She was the first name to be auctioned off at the event, and she has been the costliest player at the auction so far.

Bids for Mandhana came in from both Mumbai and Bangalore. Despite the fact that Mumbai team owner Neeta Ambani was very interested in Mandhana’s services, Bangalore won the bidding war. The Mumbai team, on the other hand, paid 1.8 crores for Indian captain Harmanpreet Kaur.

Here is how Twitter reacted to Shafali Verma