Sanika Chalke was in a team meeting in the ongoing Senior Women's T20 Trophy when her phone started buzzing. She had a hint of what might have happened. She just had to confirm that it indeed had happened. Mumbai Indians (MI) had picked her up at the WPL 2027 auction for her base price of INR 10 lakh (US$10,500 approx.).
"I quickly opened JioHotstar and saw my name. I had expectations… more than expectations, I was hopeful of being picked because my trials with MI went well," Chalke, 20, tells Cricinfo from Pune where she is playing for Mumbai in the domestic T20 competition.
Chalke had appeared for trials with MI and had fared well in the two practice matches she played. She also played one trial match for UP Warriorz (UPW) in Mumbai. She was hopeful of being picked. Her name was in Set 13 for uncapped batters, which came up only as part of the accelerated round about two hours after the auction started. All of that made watching the auction unfold a nervous experience. It was all worth it, though.
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"When it actually happened, it was a surreal feeling," she says. "MI has always been my favourite team. Suddenly it struck me that I will be playing with some of the legends from various countries, all of whom are at MI. I am more excited to share the field with them this season."
With domestic captain Manali Dakshini also selected by UPW at the same auction, Mumbai's players had more reasons to celebrate that evening.
Left-hand batter Chalke was one of the six uncapped players MI bought at the auction. Her signing is significant for two reasons. One, she is one of two top-order batters MI picked at the auction - Vidarbha opener Disha Kasat, who has played for Royal Challengers Bengaluru before, being the other. And secondly, MI used as many as four opening pairs in eight matches in WPL 2026, when they missed the playoffs for the first time.
Chalke's growth as a T20 batter would have showed up in MI's search. She was the leading run-scorer in the inaugural Women's Mumbai T20 League in June. She scored 223 runs at a strike rate of 142.95 and an average of 55.75 while playing for Aakash Tigers Mumbai Western Suburbs.
"Once the Under-19s got over, I realised that I needed to up my game, especially in T20 cricket," Chalke says. She was the vice-captain when India won the Under-19 Women's T20 World Cup last year. With G Trisha and G Kamalini forming a successful opening pair and taking the tournament by storm, Chalke's opportunities as a No. 3 were limited. One of those saw her score the winning runs in the final.
"I didn't have the scores to back me up. I wanted to make my name at the senior level.
"So I worked on my power-hitting and made game-plans to succeed in the powerplay - which areas I should target, which bowlers I can target. My coaches made me realise that even if I am someone who times the ball, I can score quickly if I can stay in the middle for long. And then I also learnt to back my shots, and attack tactically by manipulating the field.
"I brought those learnings to T20 Mumbai and that tournament gave me a lot of success and something to look forward to. I realised the reach of T20 Mumbai when people reached out and praised my performances. But that also raised expectations of good performance from me. Now I am expected to do well in state matches also for Mumbai. It also helped create an image of me in the Mumbai team, and I was preferred as an opener."
Chalke has started the domestic T20s on a high for Mumbai. In five matches, she has amassed 274 runs at an average of 137 and a strike rate of 139.79 (as of November 4). She has scored three half-centuries, including a 53-ball 85 not out while opening against Jharkhand and an unbeaten 85 off 57 in the chase against Delhi. As a batter with a high ceiling, Chalke is just getting started, albeit a little later than anticipated.
Her father, Vinod, identified her interest and skill in the sport early on. When she was 11, he enrolled her at the Boys Cricket Club in Dombivli, a suburb in Thane district just outside Mumbai, where Rajan Dhotre coached her in her formative years. In about 12 to 15 months, Chalke was among the probables for Mumbai's Under-16 and Under-19 teams. To further her ambitions in the sport, the family moved to Kanjurmarg, a suburb in central Mumbai, after Covid-19 and she joined the Senroof Cricket Academy where she worked with coach Swapnil Pradhan. Relocating to a suburb in Mumbai also allowed her to play school cricket competitions as part of the Mumbai School Sports Association.
As a 15-year-old, Chalke was earmarked as one of the promising, young top-order batters and made her senior Mumbai debut in the 2020-21 season. She was among the pool of players in contention for the inaugural Under-19 T20 World Cup in January 2023. But an injury during the Under-19 Women's Challengers Trophy in November 2021 led to a long layoff. Working with Sunetra Paranjpe, who coached Mumbai to successive domestic T20 titles in 2023-24 and 2024-25, upon return from injury in the various age-group competitions helped Chalke raise her game. She then made it to the second edition of the Under-19 T20 World Cup in 2025 in Malaysia.
Having finally made it to the WPL, does she have goals set already?
"I am excited, yes, but right now my focus is only on Mumbai in this T20 tournament I am playing right now," Chalke says. "It is a dream come true for sure, to play alongside Harmanpreet di, who won India the World Cup last year. I just want to be around her and absorb all that I can learn. That is more than enough for me right now."