On paper, they were supposed to be the best side in the tournament and a strong contender for the WPL title. But things turned out to be pretty different for Royal Challengers Bangalore in the inaugural WPL edition. Smriti Mandhana, one of the Indian women's cricket's stalwarts attracted headlines when she fetched a whopping Rs 3.4 crore at the auction, which made her the most expensive player at the bidding event. The team management did a great job at the auction, signing some top names which include the likes of England captain Heather Knight, Australian great Ellyse Perry and New Zealand stalwart Sophie Devine. In the bowling attack, RCB roped in India's Renuka Singh Thakur and also had signed Australia's premier pacer in Megan Scutt. BCCI President Roger Binny to Head Women’s Premier League Committee.

But all that good work on the auction table unfortunately did not translate into dominant performances on the field. In the WPL 2024 auction, the RCB franchise pulled off some good signigs which help them go the distance this season. See RCB's full squad for WPL 2024 below. WPL 2024: Mumbai, Bengaluru Front-Runners As Women’s Premier League May Follow Multi-City Format.

RCB-W Full Squad for WPL 2024:  Asha Shobana, Disha Kasat, Ellyse Perry, Heather Knight, Indrani Roy, Kanika Ahuja, Renuka Singh, Richa Ghosh, Shreyanka Patil, Smriti Mandhana, Sophie Devine, Georgia Wareham, Kate Cross, Ekta Bisht, S Meghana, Simran Bahadur, Sophie Molineux, Shubha Satheesh

RCB-W Players Bought at WPL 2024 Auction:  Georgia Wareham, Kate Cross, Ekta Bisht, S Meghana, Simran Bahadur, Sophie Molineux, Shubha Satheesh

RCB-W Players Retained Ahead of WPL 2024 Auction: Asha Shobana, Disha Kasat, Ellyse Perry*, Heather Knight*, Indrani Roy, Kanika Ahuja, Renuka Singh, Richa Ghosh, Shreyanka Patil, Smriti Mandhana, Sophie Devine*

RCB-W Previous Season Recap: Smriti Mandhana and her team had a disastrous campaign where they finished fourth on the five-team table. Their superior Net Run Rate (NRR) ensured that they did finish higher than bottom-placed Gujarat Giants, who too had the same number of points.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Dec 09, 2023 03:02 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).