Dehradun, Sep 13 : The player draft for the 2025 Women's Uttarakhand Premier League was conducted on Saturday morning in Dehradun, assembling competitive squads for the four participating teams - Haridwar Storm, Mussoorie Thunders, Pithoragarh Hurricanes and Tehri Queens.

Each franchise completed its roster by securing talent across five player categories: Icon Player, Category A, Category B, Category C and Uncapped Players. With the draft now concluded, teams will kickstart their preparation to take part in the Women's UPL, which will commence on September 23.

The day started with Tehri Queens getting the first pick after a pick order was conducted on Friday evening to determine the order of the player draft. Neelam Bhardwaj, who became the youngest women's player to score a List A double century in 2024, was picked by Tehri Queens. Mussoorie Thunders were the second team to pick their Icon Player and went with wicketkeeper-batter Kanchan Parihar, who hails from Haldwani. Haridwar Storm's pick of fellow wicketkeeper-batter Sweta Verma as their Icon Player meant that Pithoragarh Hurricanes were automatically allotted Mansi Joshi as their marquee player.

Teams then proceeded to assemble the rest of their squads, following the Pick Order and getting a maximum of 2 minutes to pick one player in a particular round. In total, 16 rounds were completed, including the Icon Player round, which enabled teams to form squads of 16 players each who belong to the Senior, Under-23, Under-19 and Uncapped categories - ensuring representation across different age groups.

Squads:

Haridwar Storm: Sweta Verma (Icon Player), Jyoti Giri, Kanak Tapraniya, Safina S, Ritika Supyal, Divya Bohra, Dipika Chand, Kalpana Verma, Ankita Shah, Tanisha Khatri, Garima Bisht, Tamanna, Harshita Pant, Rose, Maanvi Jamiwal, Tanvi Nautiyal.

Mussoorie Thunders: Kanchan Parihar (Icon Player), Amisha Bahukhandi, Neelam Bisht, Dimpal Kandari, Reena Jindal, Tara Bisht, Shagun Chaudhary, Gayatri Arya, Pramila Rawat, Siddhi Pandey, Bhoomi Umar, Bhoomika Jalal, Richa Singh, Aadhya Aggarwal, Vaishnavi Thapliyal, Sidra Farooqhi.

Pithoragarh Hurricanes: Mansi Joshi (Icon Player), Muskan Kumari, Anjali Goswami, Manisha Kuanwar, Muskan Khan, Gunjan Bhandari, Nandini Kaushik, Karuna Shety, Vaishali Tulera, Rudra Sharma, Anannya Mehra, Ridhima Shety, Isha, Navya Chauhan, Isha, Priya.

Tehri Queens: Neelam Bhardwaj (Icon Player), Preeti Bhandari, Megha Saini, Minakshi Joshi, Nisha Mishra, Ankita Bisht, Kanika Negi, Aarti Bhandari, Sakshi Joshi, Vedika Tiwari, Yashika Baunthiyal, Dhriti Anand, Sehaj Kaur, Sabhya, Jasmine Kaur, Kamya Gaur.

With squads now in place, the stage is set for a competitive and high-quality tournament, which starts at the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium in Dehradun from September 23. All teams have shown strong intent in the draft and the league promises an exciting season ahead for players and fans alike enabling the development of the women's cricketing ecosystem in Uttarakhand.

/IANS