India women’s cricket team stars Pratika Rawal and Yastika Bhatia will go under the hammer at the Women’s Premier League (WPL 2026) auction on Thursday despite being injured. The mega auction is scheduled to take place in New Delhi from 3.30 PM onwards and is the first-ever in the three-season-old league. Pratika, who finished as India’s second highest run-getter in the Women’s World Cup 2025, was a part of Delhi Capitals Women previously.
Will teams pick Pratika, Yastika in WPL 2026 auction?
As per news agency IANS, all five franchises – RCB, MI, DC, UPW and GG- were informed in the pre-auction briefing that the trio of Pratika, Yastika and uncapped Indian bowler VJ Joshitha are nursing injuries at present but will still go under the hammer. If any of the three are picked in the WPL 2026 auction and cannot take part in the league later, then no replacements will be allowed for them. Additionally, the report states that Pooja Vastrakar isn’t completely fit after her shoulder surgery but is set to be a part of the WPL 2026 auction.
Pratika suffered an injury right before the semi-final against Australia. It was earlier reported that she would take at least a couple of months to completely recover from her ankle injury. Meanwhile, Yastika had to undergo an ACLK surgery after suffering a knee injury right before the Women’s World Cup.
Australian all-rounder ruled out
The report also states that all-rounder Jess Jonassen has been ruled out of the WPL 2026 auction just hours before the event due to injury. The report claims that a lot of teams were interested to pick the left-arm spinner but will now have to look at other options. Jess was a part of DC previously.
“A few teams were keen on getting her in the auction due to Sophie Molineux not registering, but now that strategy has been changed and back up plans being discussed due to her unavailability being told a day prior. It won’t come as a surprise if the other left-arm spinners, especially in the Indian players pool, will have more takers for them or their eventual price sees an increase in the mega auction,” sources told IANS.
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