Gujarat Giants who had a forgettable opening season in the Women's Premier League 2023 have released more than half their players ahead of the upcoming auction. There are a few big names among the ones who have been released namely Sophia Dunkley, Annabel Sutherland, Kim Garth and Georgia Wareham.
Beth Mooney who was set to lead them in the inaugural season but got injured in the initial phase and got ruled out of the tournament has been retained by the franchise. Giants had roped in Laura Wolvaardt as Mooney's replacement and have retained the South African captain ahead of the auction.
The retention of so many players has helped Giants gather a lot of cash and will be heading into the forthcoming auction with the biggest purse among all the teams. They have a total of INR 5.95 crore and will be required to buy ten players going forward.
Sneh Rana, who led them in the last season after the unfortunate injury to Mooney is one of the handful of Indian players who have been retained alongside Dayalan Hemalatha, Harleen Deol, Shabnam Shakil and Tanuja Kanwar.
Gujarat were able to win only two out of the eight matches that they played during the inaugural season and finished at the bottom of the points table in the five-team tournament. They ended their campaign with a total of four points and a miserable Net Run Rate (NRR) of -2.220.
Their first win of the season came against Royal Challengers Bangalore who themselves had a season to forget. Giants defeated Bangalore by 11 runs at Brabourne in the sixth match of the tournament on March 8. They won their second game against Delhi Capitals on March 16 at the same venue.
Released players:
Annabel Sutherland*, Ashwani Kumari, Georgia Wareham*, Hurley Gala, Kim Garth*, Mansi Joshi, Monica Patel, Parunika Sisodia, Sabbineni Meghana, Sophia Dunkley*, Sushma Verma
Squad:
Ashleigh Gardner*, Beth Mooney*, Dayalan Hemalatha, Harleen Deol, Laura Wolvaardt*, Shabnam Shakil, Sneh Rana, Tanuja Kanwar
