Mumbai Indians have seven WPL places to fill with one crore, and Perry is back at RCB
The five WPL franchises filed their retention lists on Monday. RCB kept Ellyse Perry, UP Warriorz have the biggest purse, and Mumbai have the least room to move.
Sep 30, 2026
Mumbai Indians have seven places to fill at the WPL 2027 auction and one crore rupees to fill them with. That is the sharpest squeeze in the retention lists the five franchises filed on Monday, 28 September, and it sets up a Kochi auction on 28 October where most teams will be shopping for bargains rather than stars.
The other headline is a return. Ellyse Perry, who pulled out of the 2026 season for personal reasons, is available again, and Royal Challengers Bengaluru have kept her.
RCB keep the champions together
The defending champions retained 13 players, nine Indian and four overseas, and let four go: Grace Harris, Linsey Smith, Dayalan Hemalatha and Gautami Naik. Smriti Mandhana stays as captain, with Richa Ghosh, Shreyanka Patil, Georgia Voll, Lauren Bell and Nadine de Klerk all kept.
Head coach Malolan Rangarajan said Perry told the franchise in August that she wanted to come back. “With Perry returning to our squad, it bolsters the team in all departments,” he said in a video RCB posted on Monday. He also made clear that a title does not buy anyone a free pass: “The intent with which we’re going to approach this auction is to improve our team.”
RCB go to Kochi with 1.15 crore rupees and five slots, two of them overseas.
The big names who are back in the pool
Gujarat Giants kept 15 players, more than anyone, and released England opener Danni Wyatt-Hodge along with Ayushi Soni, Titas Sadhu and Shivani Singh. That leaves them with three places and 1.25 crore rupees.
Delhi Capitals, who have lost all four WPL finals, released Sneh Rana, Lizelle Lee, Alana King and Taniyaa Bhatia among their six. They held on to their spine: Shafali Verma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Laura Wolvaardt, Marizanne Kapp, Annabel Sutherland and Shree Charani, the world’s top-ranked T20I bowler. Delhi have 1.10 crore rupees and five slots.
UP Warriorz let go of the most familiar names. Amy Jones, Deandra Dottin, Chloe Tryon and Kiran Navgire are all gone, and so is Shweta Sehrawat, the one player they kept going into last year’s mega auction. Meg Lanning, Deepti Sharma, Phoebe Litchfield and Sophie Ecclestone stay.
Where the money is
UP Warriorz have 3.65 crore rupees, the biggest purse by a distance, and seven places to fill, two of them overseas. Nobody else has more than 1.25 crore. If a franchise is going to pay big for Wyatt-Hodge or Dottin in Kochi, it is probably them.
Mumbai are the opposite case. Harmanpreet Kaur, Nat Sciver-Brunt, Amelia Kerr and Hayley Matthews are all retained, but after releasing six players, including Saika Ishaque and Milly Illingworth, they have seven gaps and a crore to share between them. Expect a lot of base-price buys.
Across the five teams, 27 places are up for grabs. Squads can run to a maximum of 18, and the season runs from 14 January to 7 February 2027.