The Women’s Premier League’s five franchises have completed their retentions ahead of the 2027 season auction, keeping a combined 63 players — including 23 overseas stars — while leaving 27 slots open, seven of them for overseas players, as teams prepared to bid for reinforcements at an auction reportedly staged in Kochi on October 28, 2026. The league’s fifth season is scheduled to run from January 14 to February 7, 2027. The retention window closed with most franchises opting for continuity over wholesale changes, a notable shift from the league’s earlier seasons when squads were rebuilt more aggressively each year as teams searched for a winning formula in the still-young competition.
Who Stayed
Royal Challengers Bengaluru retained the core of their title-winning nucleus, keeping star opener Smriti Mandhana while releasing Australian all-rounder Grace Harris. Mumbai Indians held on to captain Harmanpreet Kaur, continuing to build around the veteran India international as the face of their franchise. Mumbai also retained a core group of Indian domestic players who featured prominently in their most recent title run, signaling the franchise’s preference for stability over chasing marquee overseas names in the auction. Delhi Capitals took a more aggressive approach to turnover, retaining eight Indian players and five overseas players while releasing a notable group that included Sneh Rana, Lizelle Lee and Alana King — all established internationals whose departure gives Delhi significant purse flexibility heading into the auction.
Why Retention Matters
Retention decisions in the WPL, much like in the men’s Indian Premier League, set the competitive balance of the auction months in advance: teams that lock in their core stars early can focus their remaining budget on filling specific gaps, while those that release more players enter the auction with bigger purses but also bigger holes to fill. The scale of this year’s retentions — nearly two-thirds of last season’s overseas contingent — suggests most franchises view their existing rosters as fundamentally sound, preferring targeted additions over wholesale rebuilds.
The Purses in Play
UP Warriorz enter the auction with the largest remaining purse among the five teams, reportedly up to INR 3.65 crore, after releasing six players from last season’s squad. Gujarat Giants, who released four players, retained England batter Danni Wyatt-Hodge as their most prominent overseas name, betting that her experience across multiple global T20 leagues will anchor their middle order. Gujarat’s retention strategy reflects a broader trend among WPL franchises toward keeping a small core of proven overseas performers while using the auction primarily to address specific bowling or fielding gaps rather than rebuilding entire batting orders. The uneven distribution of purse space across franchises is expected to shape bidding strategy heavily once the auction gets underway.
Notable Names Released
Beyond Delhi’s high-profile releases, several established internationals are now back in the auction pool, giving rival franchises a chance to bid for proven players rather than relying solely on emerging domestic talent. The presence of experienced names like Lee and King in the player pool is expected to drive some of the auction’s most competitive bidding, particularly among franchises that released overseas all-rounders and now need to replace that balance in their XI.
Season Dates and Venue
The league confirmed its fifth season will run from January 14 to February 7, 2027, keeping the WPL in its now-familiar January window that avoids direct overlap with the IPL while still operating inside India’s primary domestic cricket season. The compressed four-week format has become a defining feature of the competition, forcing franchises to build squads for short, high-intensity campaigns rather than depth across a longer schedule.
What’s Next
With retentions locked in, attention now shifts to how the auction plays out for the 27 open slots, particularly the seven reserved for overseas players, a category that typically draws the auction’s biggest price tags given the limited pool of available international T20 specialists. How aggressively Delhi Capitals and UP Warriorz — the two teams with the most purse flexibility — choose to spend will likely determine whether this auction produces headline-grabbing bidding wars or a more conservative, incremental approach to squad-building. Rival franchises are also expected to watch Mumbai Indians and RCB closely during the bidding, since both sides enter the auction with smaller purses but a track record of identifying undervalued domestic talent in previous seasons.
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