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Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) franchise signed English pacer Kate Cross at the Women’s Premier League (WPL) 2024 mini-auction on Saturday (December 9). They procured her services for the upcoming season with a bid of ₹30 lakh, which was her base price in the auction.
RCB endured a disappointing run in the inaugural WPL 2023 season and ended up in the 4th position. After playing eight games, they won only two and lost six.
They retained most of the core players for the upcoming season and tried to strengthen their squad with quality picks at the mini-auction. The Royal Challengers put their trust in veterans. They roped in Australian spinner Georgia Wareham (₹40 lakh) and Kate Cross, both experienced at the international level.
Ekta Bisht (₹60 lahks), S Meghana (₹30 lahks), bowling all-rounder Simran Bahadur (₹30 lakhs), Shubha Satheesh (₹10 lakhs), and Australian left-arm spinner Sophie Molineux (₹30 lahks) were the other picks of RCB on Saturday.
Kate Cross's selection was the biggest surprize as she has been an ardent supporter of the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) franchise over the years in the IPL. The English star had openly spoken of her desire to play for CSK in WPL on multiple occasions, but there is no Chennai franchise in WPL at the moment.
Fans took note of the development at the mini-auction and expressed their views on Kate Cross joining RCB through reactions on X. Here are some of the best ones:
Here is the complete Royal Challengers Bangalore Women's squad assembled after the WPL 2024 season:
Georgia Wareham, Kate Cross, Ekta Bisht, Shubha Satheesh, S Meghana, Simran Bahadur, Sophie Molineux, Asha Shobana, Disha Kasat, Ellyse Perry, Heather Knight, Indrani Roy, Kanika Ahuja, Renuka Singh, Richa Ghosh, Shreyanka Patil, Smriti Mandhana, Sophie Devine.
A look at RCB's latest recruit Kate Cross' record in the T20 format
The 32-year-old pacer made her T20I debut for England in 2013 and has played 16 games so far. Cross has picked up 11 wickets in those matches at an average of 33.72 while conceding runs at an economy rate of 7.22.
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