Ace leggie Asha Sobhana becomes first Malayali ‘crorepati’ in WPL auction | Cricket News
Published: November 27, 2025 06:06 PM IST
1 minute Read
In this file photo from March 21, 2023, Royal Challengers Bangalore’s Sobhana Asha celebrates after the dismissal of Mumbai Indians’ Nat Sciver-Brunt (not pictured) during a Women’s Premier League (WPL) match at the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai. Photo: AFP/ Punit Paranjpe
Asha Sobhana became the first Malayali to go for more than Rs 1 crore in the Women’s Premier League (WPL) auction. UP Warriorz secured the services of the 34-year-old leg spinner for ₹1.10 crore in New Delhi on Thursday.
Three franchises were engaged in a bidding war for the Indian international, with the Delhi Capitals starting at the base price of ₹30 lakh. Delhi and UP increased the price to ₹55 lakh, at which point the former pulled out.
Royal Challengers Bengaluru entered the race at ₹60 lakh to try and win back the Thiruvananthapuram native, who starred in their maiden WPL win in 2024. RCB took the bidding to ₹1 crore, but chose to step back when UP raised it by another ₹10 lakh.
RCB had secured the services of Asha in the inaugural season of WPL in 2023 for ₹10 lakh. She bagged 12 wickets to finish as the joint second-highest wicket-taker. In RCB’s title-winning campaign, Asha famously bagged a five-wicket haul against UP Warriorz, becoming the first Indian to claim a fifer in WPL.
Thanks to her WPL heroics, Asha was given her maiden India call-up in April last year for a tour of Bangladesh and made her T20I debut in May. At 33, Asha made her World Cup debut in India’s opener against New Zealand in the T20 event in Dubai last October.
Asha was unlucky to miss out on the last season of WPL due to a knee injury. She had been sidelined for almost a year, but made a spectacular return in the domestic circuit with Kerala. Asha impressed with a player-of-the-match performance on her return in a Senior Women’s T20 Trophy match against Vidarbha in Chandigarh in early October.
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