Mumbai, Dec 9 (IANS) Ahead of the Women’s Premier League (WPL) auction to be held in Mumbai on Saturday, Delhi Capitals head coach Jonathan Batty said the team’s strategy will be to improve the depth of the squad.

Delhi, who finished as runners-up in the inaugural season of the WPL, have available a purse of INR 2.25 crore and have three slots to fill. They released Jasia Akhtar, Aparna Mondal and the USA fast bowler Tara Norris, who picked up the tournament’s first five-wicket haul.

"We want to improve the depth of the squad. We did really well in last year's Auction and constructed a good 18-player squad. We'll just look to make our current squad slightly better in the upcoming Auction. The coaching group has had a few discussions on the team we want to have, and we are excited to go into the Auction," said Batty in a statement issued by the franchise.

He also expressed that the inaugural season of the WPL, held in March this year, has set the standard for all other T20 franchise women's tournaments in the world.

"We witnessed a great quality of cricket in the last edition of the Women's Premier League."

"The best players in the world were in the tournament. We saw some great matches and scores. This tournament is the benchmark for all the other women's tournaments in the world."

After the inaugural WPL season was over, Delhi had off-season camps in the city and Bengaluru for their players, as noticed from social media.

Asked about the impact of the WPL, assistant coach Hemlata Kala, the former India women’s chief selector, said, "There's a lot of excitement among the women cricketers after the advent of the Women's Premier League."

"All players want to be a part of the tournament. The first season of the WPL has had a positive impact on women's cricket. And we can see that with the Indian team doing well in T20s in recent months. The players have also improved their skills in power-hitting and fielding."