How much money has RCB retained Smriti Mandhana for ahead of WPL 2025 Auction?

Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) have retained their skipper Smriti Mandhana for her original salary of INR 3.4 crore ahead of the 2025 Women's Premier League (WPL) auction. The opening batter had led the franchise to the title in the 2024 edition, and was roped in as the most expensive acquisition in the first-ever auction.

The WPL is yet to witness its first mega auction, if the inaugural one is not taken into consideration. This means that franchises retain players at the same price at which they initially bought them at the auction table.

Since RCB acquired Smriti Mandhana for INR 3.4 crore, she was retained for the same sum ahead of the WPL 2024, and the same trend follows ahead of the 2025 edition as well.

RCB have shelled out more than a fifth of their purse amount to keep a hold of their captain. The franchise have only released seven players, which includes the overseas pair of Nadine de Klerk and Heather Knight.

Smriti Mandhana will be under tremendous pressure to retain the title, and be at her best with the bat. Despite her improved contribution in the winning campaign in 2024, she is yet to justify her price tag and tear the league apart.

Coming on the back of some runs in the home series against New Zealand, and a tour of Australia on the horizon, the left-handed batter will look to lead RCB from the front when the time comes next year.

Smriti Mandhana remains the most expensive player in WPL

Following this retention, she remains the most expensive player in the competition, marginally over all-rounders Ashleigh Gardner and Natalie Sciver-Brunt, who have been retained by the Gujarat Giants (GG) and the Mumbai Indians (MI) respectively for INR 3.2 crore.

Smriti Mandhana was famously the first name to be auctioned off in the maiden WPL auction in late 2022. She was roped in by RCB after an intense bidding war with MI, and that signing made a huge early statement and set the tempo for the rest of the auction.