Major buys & omissions at WPL 2026 Auction: How the teams stack up

WPL 2026 Auction: Top buys, shocking omissions, and full team balance analysis — how all five franchises stack up for the new season.

Most teams came into the auction of the Women’s Premier League (WPL) 2026 retaining their core group. UP Warriorz were the only side to retain one player – uncapped Shweta Sehrawat and left out several star players including captain Deepti Sharma. The defending champions, Mumbai Indians (MI), were clear with their plans and retained the three most balanced players – captain Harmanpreet Kaur, Nat Sciver Brunt, and Hayley Matthews.

The 2024 champions of the league, Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) spent a huge chunk of money to retain captain Smriti Mandhana, Ellyse Perry, and Richa Ghosh. Delhi Capitals (DC) had multiple notable players to choose from for retention. And the management kept two cracking India players – Jemimah Rodrigues and Shafali Verma from the previous season.   

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Deepti Sharma and Amelia Kerr among major buys of WPL 2026 auction
Deepti, the ‘Player of the Tournament’ award winner of the recent World Cup 2025, became the most expensive player of the WPL 2026 mega auction. The UP Warriorz used the Right-To-Match (RTM) card to buy back their former captain for a price of INR 3.20 crore. Mumbai Indians successfully signed the New Zealand spin all-rounder, Amelia Kerr, for a price of INR 3 crore.

Towards the back end of the auction, the Warriorz bagged India’s pace bowling all-rounder, Shikha Pandey. She became the third-most expensive player of the auction at a price of INR 2.40 crore. Sophie Devine was the first player to be bought in the special afternoon as the Gujarat Giants Women (GG-W) spent INR 2 crore for the Kiwi veteran.

There were several speculations and discussions around the Delhi Capitals’ decision to leave out their former captain, Meg Lanning. The franchise tried hard to get the World Cup-winning Australia captain back into the squad but UP Warriorz had the last laugh in picking the opening batter for a price of INR 1.90 crore.

Meanwhile, out of nowhere, the Delhi Capitals spent INR 1.30 crore for Chinelle Henry. The West Indies middle-order batter will now move from UP Warriorz to Royal Challengers Bengaluru. In the 2024-25 season of the competition, the right-handed batter recorded 163 runs in seven innings at a strike rate of 196.38.

Alyssa Healy’s exclusion shocks WPL 2026 auction
Alyssa Healy was the first player to appear in the WPL 2026 auction. And to everyone’s surprise, there was no bidder for Australia’s opening batter. The wicket-keeper featured in two seasons of the league for the UP Warriorz and registered 428 runs at a strike rate of 130.48. She wasn’t a part of the last season as she had to look after her fitness ahead of the Women’s ODI World Cup 2025.

New Zealand’s Lea Tahuhu was another surprising omission in the auction. The lanky pacer didn’t get any bidders. However, her absence can be explained, given she picked up only one wicket in the 2023/24 season for the UP Warriorz. She wasn’t even part of the previous edition.

The former England captain, Heather Knight, also didn’t get any bids. She hasn’t featured in the last couple of seasons. Meanwhile, Alana King didn’t get any team despite picking 13 wickets at 17.38 in the Women’s World Cup 2025 held in India. England’s batting all-rounder, Alice Capsey, also went unsold in the auction.

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Full squads of five franchises after WPL 2026 mega auction

Mumbai Indians Women (MI-W)
Nat Sciver-Brunt, Harmanpreet Kaur, Hayley Matthews, Amanjot Kaur, G. Kamalini, Amelia Kerr (INR 3.00 crore), Shabnim Ismail (INR 0.60 crore), Sanskriti Gupta (INR 0.20 crore), Sajana Sajeevan (INR 0.75 crore), Rahila Firdous (INR 0.10 crore), Nicola Carey (INR 0.30 crore), Poonam Khemnar (INR 0.10 crore), Triveni Vasistha (INR 0.20 crore), Nalla Reddy (INR 0.10 crore), Saika Ishaque (INR 0.30 crore), Milly Illingworth (INR 0.10 crore). 

Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB-W)
Smriti Mandhana, Richa Ghosh, Ellyse Perry, Shreyanka Patil, Georgia Voll (INR 0.60 crore), Nadine de Klerk (INR 0.65 crore), Radha Yadav (INR 0.65 crore), Lauren Bell (INR 0.90 crore), Linsey Smith (INR 0.30 crore), Prema Rawat (INR 0.20 crore-RTM), Arundhati Reddy (INR 0.75 crore), Pooja Vastrakar (INR 0.85 crore), Grace Harris (INR 0.75 crore), Gautami Naik (INR 0.10 crore), Prathyoosha Kumari (INR 0.10 crore), D. Hemalatha (INR 0.30 crore).

Gujarat Giants Women (GG-W)
Ashleigh Gardner, Beth Mooney, Sophie Devine (INR 2.00 crore), Renuka Singh Thakur (INR 0.60 crore), Bharti Fulmali (INR 0.70 crore-RTM), Titas Sadhu (INR 0.30 crore), Kashvee Gautam (INR 0.65 crore-RTM), Kanika Ahuja (INR 0.30 crore), Tanuja Kanwer (INR 0.45 crore), Georgia Wareham (INR 1.00 crore), Anushka Sharma (INR 0.45 crore), Happy Kumari (INR 0.10 crore), Kim Garth (INR 0.50 crore), Yastika Bhatia (INR 0.50 crore), Shivani Singh (INR 0.10 crore), Danni Wyatt-Hodge (INR 0.50 crore), Rajeshwari Gaykwad (INR 0.40 crore), Ayushi Soni (INR 0.30 crore).

UP Warriorz Women (UPW-W)
Shweta Sehrawat, Deepti Sharma (INR 3.2 crore-RTM), Sophie Ecclestone (INR 0.85 crore-RTM), Meg Lanning (INR 1.90 crore), Phoebe Litchfield (INR 1.20 crore), Kiran Navgire (INR 0.60 crore-RTM), Harleen Deol (INR 0.50 crore), Kranti Goud (INR 0.50 crore-RTM), Asha Sobhana (INR 1.10 crore), Deandra Dottin (INR 0.80 lakh), Shikha Pandey (INR 2.40 crore), Shipra Giri (INR 0.10 crore), Simran Shaikh (INR 0.10 crore), Tara Norris (INR 0.10 crore), Chloe Tryon (INR 0.30 crore), Suman Meena (INR 0.10 crore), G. Trisha (INR 0.10 crore), Pratika Rawal (INR 0.50 crore).

Delhi Capitals Women (DC-W)
Jemimah Rodrigues, Shafali Verma, Annabel Sutherland, Marizanne Kapp, Niki Prasad, Laura Wolvaardt (INR 1.10 crore), Chinelle Henry (INR 1.30 crore), Shree Charani (INR 1.30 crore), Sneh Rana (INR 0.50 crore), Lizelle Lee (INR 0.30 crore), Deeya Yadav (INR 0.10 crore), Taniya Bhatia (INR 0.30 crore), Mamatha Madiwala (INR 0.10 crore), Nandini Sharma (INR 0.20 crore), Lucy Hamilton (INR 0.10 crore), Minnu Mani (INR 0.40 crore).

The fourth edition of the WPL will begin on January 09 at the Dr DY Patil Sports Academy in Navi Mumbai. The final will take place at the Kotambi Stadium in Vadodara on February 07.

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