While many uncapped youngsters received big paychecks in the Women’s Premier League 2024 auction on December 9, there were surprising omissions as well. Here are the five surprising names in the unsold list of the WPL 2024 auction.

Chamari Athapaththu

Chamari Athapaththu, at a base price of 30 lakh INR going unsold in the WPL 2024 auction, has been one of the major talking points this season. She has had a dream year, almost single-handedly winning the first-ever historic ODI series against New Zealand and scored 415 ODI runs at an average of 69.16 while striking at 125.37 in 2023 before leading Sri Lanka to a T20I series win against England with 114 runs in three outings at a staggering strike-rate of 165.21.

In addition to her international exploits, 511 runs at an average of 42.58 and a strike rate of 129.69, alongside nine wickets as a last-minute overseas replacement for Sydney Thunder, earned her the Player of the Tournament award in the WBBL 2023 season.  The Sri Lankan captain will be gutted for not finding a side for the second straight year.

Tara Norris

Tara Norris is another surprising omission in the auction, given her fruitful run for the Delhi Capitals in the inaugural season. After becoming the only representative from an Associate nation in the 2023 WPL, Tara grabbed a five-wicket haul (5-29) in her first match against Royal Challengers Bangalore but was released by DC entering this auction. Although a price tag of 10 lakh INR was a decent deal, franchises thought otherwise.

Alana King

Australian wrist-spinner Alana King, with a price tag of 30 lakh INR, went unsold. King was part of the Supernovas, which won the 2022 edition of the defunct Women’s T20 Challenge. She bamboozled Deepti Sharma, Sneh Rana and Radha Yadav with her googlies to finish with figures of 3-32 in the final.

Deandra Dottin

In another shocker, West Indies all-rounder Deandra Dottin, who was controversially excluded from the Gujarat Titans squad on medical grounds – something which she refuted publicly – ahead of the first season, didn’t find any bidders as her highest base price of 50 lakh INR.

Amy Jones

The veteran English wicket-keeper batter missed out on the WPL auction after setting her base price at 40 lakh INR. An international career for England spanning over ten years, Amy Jones has scored 1350 T20I runs at an average and a strike rate of 21.77 and 122.28, respectively, and has been sharp behind the stumps.

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