Simran Shaikh has been the most expensive buy of the Women’s Premier League (WPL) 2025 auction so far. The 22-year-old batter who hails from Mumbai saw her price surge from Rs 10 lakh all the way to Rs 1.90 crore. But what’s so special about an uncapped player that the Gujarat Giants Women (GG-W) were willing to pay around 40% of their total budget to get her?
Who is Simran Shaikh?
Simran’s story is straight out of a movie. The batter grew up in Dharavi, one of the biggest slums in the world. Slowly she made her way to the top, and at the WPL 2023 auction, UP Warriorz showed interest in her, bagging her at the base price of Rs 10 lakh. Naturally, it was a dream come true for Simran and her family.
Jahid Ali, her father, is a wireman, and apart from Simran, has six other children to look after. It was tough for him to support her cricket aspirations. But Jahid and Simran were willing to risk it all. She left her studies at 15 and gave all she had for the sport she loved. Her father backed her all the way until now when she almost broke the record for the most expensive uncapped player in WPL auction history.
“When my daughter was small she was interested in playing cricket. Whenever she used to play cricket on the ground a lot of people used to scold her and say a lot of things. But my daughter ignored all the noises. She focused on cricket and continued to move forward,” Jahid Ali had told ANI last year.
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Simran Shaikh T20 stats
| Teams | Matches | Runs | Average | Strike Rate | 50s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| WPL | 9 | 29 | 5.80 | 60.41 | 0 |
| Overall | 80 | 1528 | 34.73 | 169.78 | 8 |
