Entering the Kochi auction with just INR 1.25 crore, Gujarat Giants have retained their core squad and target only three slots
After back-to-back bottom finishes initially, coach Michael Klinger guided Gujarat to consecutive playoff runs
Trusting squad stability, Gujarat released just four players—including Danni Wyatt-Hodge and Titas Sadhu
Gujarat Giants have been near the business end of the Women’s Premier League often enough to know what it feels like, and still far enough from the trophy to know what it costs. The franchises meet in Kochi on Wednesday for the player auction ahead of the 2027 season.
Michael Klinger’s side arrive with a nearly complete squad and little money, and with a coach who thinks the answers lie in watching more cricket rather than spending more.
Bidding starts at 5:30pm IST, with 146 players going for only 27 slots, seven of them overseas. The pool has 119 Indian players and 27 overseas players. The room is far from level, since this comes a year after the league’s second mega auction.
Royal Challengers Bengaluru have seven vacancies and the biggest purse, INR 3.65 crore. Gujarat’s position is much tighter. After letting four players go, they have INR 1.25 crore and three places to fill, one of them overseas.
The caution makes sense for a franchise with a record like Gujarat’s. They finished bottom in each of the first two editions, and Klinger took charge after the first of those seasons. The climb since has been real but unfinished.
They have reached the playoffs in consecutive seasons, and last season ended in another Eliminator exit. They are still waiting for a first final. The season was uneven. They opened with two wins and then lost three in a row, which left them struggling for a playoff place. Klinger still called it the best season the Giants have had.
That belief explains why this year’s retention round was so quiet. The Giants kept most of their squad, a contrast with the second season, when they released 11 players. Danni Wyatt-Hodge, Ayushi Soni, Titas Sadhu and Shivani Singh were the four who went
yatt-Hodge was the surprise. She finished as the top run-scorer at the 2026 Women’s T20 World Cup in England. At Gujarat, though, she was back-up to openers Beth Mooney and Sophie Devine, and played only one game last season. Sadhu was a different case.
Releasing Titas
Sadhu was a INR 30 lakh signing at last year’s mega auction. A thumb injury kept her out of every game in WPL 2026, and Gujarat never got to use a bowler who has played eight ODIs and 12 T20Is for India. Klinger did not dress up the decision.
When asked by Outlook India Klinger cited injury as the reason to release her.
“We got Titas last year for the reasons you mention. She had done reasonably well in the WPL and for India previously. What probably went against her this time was her injuries. She was hurt last season and we never got to see her, and she has been injured since. She’s just making her comeback now,” he said.
He added that Gujarat were still keeping an eye on her. “We’re having a training camp at the moment and we still asked her to come in so we could take a look at her before the auction. She’s progressing well and will start the domestic season on October 26. But I felt releasing her gave us a few more options in the auction. There’s no reason we may not look to get her back, but it also gives us a chance to look at some other options.”
Missing Indian Stars
Klinger also talked with Outlook India about not having Indian stars like Harmanpreet Kaur and Smriti Mandhana in his squad.
Gujarat’s bigger challenge is finding Indian batters who can actually win games. Every franchise has the same problem, and the best Indian players are already taken. Mumbai Indians kept Harmanpreet Kaur, and Delhi Capitals held on to Jemimah Rodrigues. That leaves scouting as the best way in, and Klinger has a recent example. Gujarat bought Anushka Sharma for INR 45 lakh at the mega auction, and after her first season he rated her a batter who can reliably make 300 runs
“Scouting can definitely do it,” he said. “Look at Anushka last year. A lot of batters had better domestic seasons than her leading into the auction. But our scouts felt, from what they saw of her, even in scores of 20 and 30, that her game would step up against the best bowling in the world. Little gems of information like that were the reason we picked her. We could easily have picked five or six batters who had scored a lot more runs than her. So yes, the scouting system can unearth future stars.”
He was just as clear about why Gujarat do not chase the established names. “Once that first WPL auction happened and a few Indian stars ended up in teams, it’s always hard to get them out. Come retention time, if the teams want to retain them and they decide to stay, they stay. But who’s to say they’re the best players in India?”
Klinger pointed to Yastika Bhatia as an example. Gujarat paid INR 50 lakh for the wicketkeeper-batter while she was still recovering from ACL surgery, and she was ruled out of the rest of the 2026 season. He believes players in that position can bring extra hunger. “Why can’t Yastika and Anushka, with extra motivation to get back into the Indian team, have better WPL tournaments than established Indian star batters at the moment? I think that can give us an advantage. They come in eager to do well, not only for us but for themselves.”
He also sees India’s own approach to T20 cricket shifting, and he thinks that helps. “It looks like India are making a style change in T20s. They want their batters to play aggressive cricket, and that’s a good message for Yastika and Anushka. A slow 40 or 50 probably isn’t going to get them back into the Indian team. They need to be dynamic and play exciting cricket. Now that they know that, they’ll go out and play that way for Gujarat Giants, and that will help them get back into the Indian team.”
With three slots and INR 1.25 crore, the Giants will have little room to chase marquee names on Wednesday. Klinger is betting that his scouts have already found the players who can take them past the Eliminator.
