The Women’s Premier League (WPL) 2026 mega auction held in New Delhi on Thursday was nothing short of an adrenaline-filled occasion. All five teams totally transformed their line-ups, as 277 players were available for the taking.
They could only retain a few players, and thus most of the teams had to make large investments to improve their selections. While India’s shining all-rounder Deepti Sharma turned out to be the highest-priced player overall, the auction also created a buzz around the hefty sums allocated to uncapped players.
Who’s Anushka Sharma? Everything you need to know
Uncapped player Anushka Sharma is WPL 2026’s pricey star The major news regarding uncapped players was Anushka Sharma who emerged the most expensive uncapped signing in the WPL 2026 auction. She was bought by the Gujarat Giants for ₹45 lakh, thus becoming one of the day’s most discussed young talents.
To help you understand better, Anushka Sharma is a 19-year-old cricketer from Madhya Pradesh who is known for her hard-hitting batting and useful off-spin bowling. Her consistent and impressive performance in the domestic circuit over the past year is the reason for the fierce bidding war for her at the auction.
Anushka’s base price was a mere ₹10 lakh, but the Gujarat Giants and the defending champions Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) both expressed keen interest. RCB managed to reach up to ₹40 lakh before the Gujarat finally acquired her for ₹45 lakhs.
Just at the age of 22, Anushka has a remarkable track record already. She has an astonishing List A batting average of 63.00 and a strike rate of 125.00 in the Senior Women’s Inter-Zonal T20 Trophy (October) where she represented Central Zone. She also had a good season with Madhya Pradesh in the Senior Women’s T20 Trophy.
The lesser-known auction blockbuster of the year was Prema Rawat, who landed at the Royal Challengers Bengaluru for ₹20 lakh, being the second-most expensive uncapped player of the auction.
WPL’s most valuable uncapped player ever remains Kashvee Gautam for now, who, in the WPL 2025 mini-auction, went to Gujarat Giants for an enormous ₹2 crore after a strong fight with RCB and UP Warriorz in the bidding.