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WPL retentions: Deepti, Wolvaardt released ahead of auction
Meg Lanning, Deepti Sharma, and others headline the upcoming Women's Premier League auction, with teams finalizing player retentions ahead of the event.
New Delhi: Meg Lanning, Deepti Sharma, Laura Wolvaardt and Amelia Kerr are set to be among the big names to enter the Women’s Premier League (WPL) auction later this month as teams announced their retentions on Thursday.
As per WPL retention rules, franchises can retain a maximum of three capped Indian players, a maximum of two overseas players, and a maximum of two uncapped Indian players.
UP Warriorz have decided to undergo an overhaul at the auction as they decided against retaining their skipper Alyssa Healy and the World Cup’s Player of the Tournament Deepti, and only keeping uncapped U-19 winner Shweta Sehrawat in their roster. Each team has a cap of ₹15 crore and as a result of the sole retention, Warriorz have the biggest purse with ₹14.5 remaining.
Meanwhile, defending champions have made use of the limit of retaining five players including World Cup-winning skipper and two-time WPL title winner Harmanpreet Kaur. They have also retained all-rounders Amanjot Kaur, Hayley Matthews, Nat-Sciver Brunt and the hard-hitting uncapped batter G Kamalini.
Runners-up Delhi Capitals will see a new captain after the departure of Lanning but have retained the rest of the core in Jemimah Rodrigues, Australian seam-bowling all-rounder Annabel Sutherland, South Africa’s Marizanne Kapp and Shafali Verma and the uncapped U-19 winning captain Niki Prasad.
DC and MI will have ₹5.75 crore to build their squad, which should have between 16 and 18 players. They will not have any RTMs available.
Royal Challengers Bengaluru have retained captain Smriti Mandhana, Australian all-rounder Ellyse Perry, wicket-keeper batter Richa Ghosh and spin-bowling all-rounder Shreyanka Patil. Meanwhile, Gujarat Giants have retained their Australian duo in Ash Gardner and Beth Mooney.
Nat Sciver Brunt, Ash Gardner, Smriti Mandhana are the most expensive retentions ahead of the season at ₹3.5 crore.
The WPL has also, for the first time, decided to allow franchises the use of the right-to-match (RTM) option at the auction to buy back a player who was part of their squad in 2025. Warriorz can use four RTMs, Giants will have three RTMs restricted to only Indian players while RCB will have one RTM.
The auction is scheduled to take place in New Delhi on November 27.
List of retained players
Mumbai Indians: Harmanpreet Kaur ( ₹2.5 Cr), Amanjot Kaur ( ₹1 Cr), Hayley Matthews ( ₹1.75 Cr), Nat-Sciver Brunt ( ₹3.5 Cr), G Kamalini ( ₹50 lakh)
Royal Challengers Bengaluru: Smriti Mandhana ( ₹3.5 Cr), Richa Ghosh ( ₹2.75 Cr), Ellyse Perry ( ₹2 Cr), Shreyanka Patil ( ₹60 lakh)
Gujarat Giants: Ashleigh Gardner ( ₹3.5 Cr), Beth Mooney ( ₹2.5 Cr)
UP Warriorz: Shweta Sehrawat ( ₹50 lakh)
Delhi Capitals: Annabel Sutherland ( ₹2.2 Cr), Marizanne Kapp ( ₹2.2 Cr), Shafali Verma ( ₹2.2 Cr), Jemimah Rodrigues ( ₹2.2 Cr), Niki Prasad ( ₹50 lakh)
