UP Warriorz 'Expect The World' And Now They Have A Team, And Coach, To Finally Win It

Last Updated:December 02, 2025, 06:51 IST
UP Warriorz finally pair ambition with clarity, and with Abhishek Nayar steering the vision, they look closer than ever to becoming genuine WPL contenders.
It has barely been a few months since his appointment, but Abhishek Nayar’s imprint on UP Warriorz couldn’t have been clearer at the Women’s Premier League (WPL) 2026 auction.
At the first ‘mega’ such event, the Warriorz operated with not only unmatched aggression but also acute clarity. It is the latter quality that they have lacked in most of their WPL journey so far, which has seen them finish third, fourth, and fifth — in that order — in the three seasons.
After working with the team he inherited in 2025, Nayar was given a ‘clean slate’ this time as the Warriorz only retained the uncapped Shweta Sehrawat and went to the auction with the biggest budget. However, their choices were clinical, allowing them to build a team of several prime-aged T20 stars, most of them being world-class all-rounders, with a sprinkle of experience.
Whether it was the choice of releasing Deepti Sharma to bring her back for the auction’s highest price of Rs. 3.2 crore, to get the best cut-priced deal of Sophie Ecclestone for only Rs. 80 lakhs, the Warriorz finally, finally, seem to have gotten a team that looks like contenders.
CNN-News18 exclusively spoke to Kshemal Waingankar, the man behind Nayar’s appointment and the COO of the sports division of Capri Global, who owns the Warriorz. A former cricketer for Mumbai and Kolkata Knight Riders, Waingankar knows a good cricket team from an OK one, and his confidence in the Warriroz says it all.
If you don’t mind me saying this, wasn’t that too easy? Who was the mastermind behind it, and how much time did it take to plan for that? Because the squad looks really good.
When people consider an auction, I think it’s not just the day prior to the auction that the team comes together. We were starting to think about the auction when the retentions came around. Our thought process was that the Capitals, RCB, and MI will have to retain their core, which means that they will be spending the majority of their purse. That allowed us some sort of freedom in the decision-making as well.
The thinking was that we’re bringing Abhishek Nayar on board, the best coach currently in the country. We wanted to give him a clean slate, give him the freedom, and go by his vision, try and build the score around how he thinks we could go forward, and try to win a championship.
So when that started about a few months ago, I think, we came around and decided, ‘Ok, now what is it that we need to do? How do we go about building it?’ The thought of retentions was plain and simple. We knew that the highest bid would be in the range of 3 or 3.2 crore. We knew it could not go beyond a certain price. And as you’ve noticed, in the end, everyone has consumed almost the entire purse, right?
So we wanted to ensure that we don’t take things for granted in the auction. While you say that the auction was easy for us, very difficult for us because the auction was not driven by us. The auction is driven by the teams that actually bid for the players, right? So we had to figure out what the right price is because the focus was on building a combination. It would have been very easy to get carried away, be emotional on the day, and try to bring in people that we have had in the past.
But it was very critical of what we decided to do as a coaching group — I think they put a lot of time and effort into building this entire combination, and they were very sharp and focused on what they needed to do. So as soon as we have the playing 11 sorted, that’s when we started looking at options. Someone like Pratika Rahul, for example, we brought her in this year knowing fully well she’s not fit. But we know that she has great potential, and again, we would like to see how we can work with her and try to bring her into the action next year.
You were very aggressive at the start. You had to be, but I believe you’d be pretty pleased with getting Sophie Ecclestone and Kiran Navgire for a cut-price deal?
I think extremely pleased that we were able to exercise our four RTMs and get the players that we were able to get and at those prices. So Kranti Goud came in back at 50 lakhs, Kiran came back at 60, and Sophie at 85, and Deepti, of course, at 3.2. I am extremely happy with all 4 RTM options that we ended up getting. Obviously, as I said, the dynamic of the auction is such that you don’t know which player is going to come out first and who will end up bidding. If someone’s already consumed their purse or already filled up a slot automatically, the next player may benefit or may not benefit from that particular action, right?
I think it’s just so panned out that we got lucky with a couple of things, but we also have to pay a premium for some of the other players, so that’s how it pans out, and that’s why the auction is not as easy as it looked. We had the biggest purse, but the reality is that others had filled up 5 slots and had a core, and we had to build everything from scratch.
Were you expecting DC to go that hard for Deepti Sharma? It was such a roller-coaster bidding process where at one point, she looked like she’d go unsold to a record bid. What was being discussed at the table?
The table discussions are merely a reflection of what has been planned in the past. So we have gone through multiple scenarios at different prices, varied prices, and tried to ascertain which price point the team would be comfortable with in continuing to build the vision and work towards the combination that Abhishek had put together. So with that thought process, I think we were OK with the price point that DC went up to.
We knew fully well that had they gone up to a slightly higher price point, they would not have been able to build what they were looking to build as well. So we had a sense of what price points to consider at the time.
The decision to rope in Abhishek Nayar… a huge name, how did it come about, and what are the expectations from him?
We expect the world. I don’t think he expects anything less. I have known him for many a year. I think he is the best coach in the country. It is proven whether it is young cricketers who have come through the system or some of the senior players who have worked with him.
Everyone goes gaga about what he brings to the table. And I think the way he goes about doing things, the involvement that he has, his hands-on approach, but at the same time, how authentic he is and how caring he is to the player, to the individual, that comes through very quickly.
So it was a no-brainer for us when he became available, and when we asked him if he wanted to come on board, he agreed. There was no question or reason for doubt at all in our heads.
News cricket UP Warriorz 'Expect The World' And Now They Have A Team, And Coach, To Finally Win It