The fifth edition of the Women's Premier League (WPL) will be played from January 14 to February 7, 2027, the BCCI has announced. The deadline for the five franchises to submit their player retentions ahead of the tournament is September 28, before the auction will be held on October 28 in Kochi.
It will be a mini-auction this time, after 73 slots were filled at the mega-auction in Delhi for the last season. Each squad can have a maximum of 18 players with a salary cap of INR 15 crore. There is no cap on the number of players that can be retained.
Deepti Sharma was the most expensive player at last year's mega-auction with UP Warriorz picking her for INR 3.2 crore, followed by Melie Kerr (Mumbai Indians, INR 3 crore) and Shikha Pandey (UPW, INR 2.4 crore). Kashvee Gautam, who attracted a bid of INR 2 crore from Gujarat Giants at the WPL 2024 auction, was the most expensive player at a mini-auction followed by Simran Shaikh, whom UPW picked at the WPL 2025 auction for INR 1.9 crore.
Royal Challengers Bengaluru are the defending champions of the WPL, having also won the competition in 2024. Two-time champions MI are likely to have a new head coach with Lisa Keightley being appointed Cricket Australia's national development lead.
UPW also have bolstered their support staff by appointing Neetu David as their chief scout. She took over from Bengal allrounder Rajib Dutta.