“Jersey No. 18 is emotion for RCBians” – Fans react as Smriti Mandhana gets sold to Royal Challengers Bangalore for Rs 3.4 crore in WPL Auction 2023

Smriti Mandhana set the Women’s Premier League (WPL) 2023 auction on fire as she was sold to the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) for Rs 3.4 crore on Monday. This came after a fierce bidding war between RCB and Mumbai Indians (MI). The southpaw’s base price was Rs 50 lakh.

Mandhana is currently the third-ranked batter in the latest ICC T20 rankings for Women. So far, she has played 112 T20Is, scoring 2651 runs at a strike rate of 123.13, including 20 half-centuries. The 26-year-old has also played 77 ODIs and four Tests.

RCB fans were delighted as Mandhana joined former skipper Virat Kohli in the same franchise. Coincidentally, the duo share the same jersey number – 18.

Here are some of the best Twitter reactions:

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“I’m really excited for the first-ever Women’s Premier League” – Smriti Mandhana

Smriti Mandhana, who won the ICC Women’s Cricketer of the Year 2022 award, is delighted to play in the WPL 2023. She feels that the tournament will elevate the level of women’s cricket in India.

Speaking recently to Jio Cinema, she said:

"I'm really excited for the first-ever Women's Premier League. We have been waiting for this for a really long time. I think the build-up has been amazing and I'm really excited at how things have turned out.”

Mandhana continued:

"It's going to be massive in terms of growing bench strength for the Indian team and I don't think only in India, globally it's going to be massive for women's cricket. IPL is a brand, and similarly, WPL will definitely boost women's cricket globally.

"We have seen what Women's Big Bash (played in Australia) has done for players from different countries. WPL will do the same.”

In February 2019, she became the fastest batter to score fifty (24 balls) in Women’s T20Is (against New Zealand Women).

Smriti Mandhana also became the youngest T20I captain for India as she led in the absence of the injured Harmanpreet Kaur against England Women in the first T20I in Guwahati during the same year.