The Women’s Premier League is back at the auction table this Wednesday, and it is shaping up to be a wild one! Five franchises are gathering in Kochi to fill out their squads for the 2027 season in a mini-auction. With 146 players shortlisted for just 27 available slots, including seven reserved for overseas cricketers, and a combined ₹8.15 crore left for the teams to spend, every move is gonna matter. And get this, the UP Warriorz are rolling in with by far the deepest pockets, holding ₹3.75 crore of that total. That gives them serious room to chase a marquee name that nobody else can even dream of matching.
The Untouchable Auction King: Mandhana’s 2023 Dominance
Listen, folks, no bid in the league’s entire history has ever passed the mark set in the very first auction back in 2023. Can you believe it? That was when the five franchises were building from nothing, and they went all-in on the biggest names. Smriti Mandhana, for Royal Challengers Bengaluru, commanded a whopping ₹3.40 crore that year, and it has stood as the record ever since she became the first player sold at that inaugural auction.
Since then, three players have matched the ₹3.20 crore mark but haven’t broken past her: Ashleigh Gardner for Gujarat Giants and Nat Sciver-Brunt for Mumbai Indians, both also in 2023, and Deepti Sharma for UP Warriorz in 2026. Gardner and Sciver-Brunt remain the most expensive overseas buys in WPL history, by the way. Deepti Sharma’s entry on that list was a power move, coming through a right-to-match card at the 2026 mega auction, snatching her back from Delhi Capitals for the Warriorz. And don’t forget Amelia Kerr, whose ₹3.00 crore move to Mumbai Indians in that same 2026 auction is the only other bid to hit the three-crore club.
Now, a quick clarification here, because it gets a little tricky. Mandhana, Gardner, and Sciver-Brunt were each retained for a higher figure, ₹3.50 crore, ahead of WPL 2026. That’s more than any of them fetched at auction, right? But those are retention fees, not new bids! The official auction record still belongs to Mandhana’s untouchable 2023 haul.
Indian Stars Leading the Money Race
It is no surprise to see Indian players dominating the top spots in the league’s biggest buys from the very beginning. The gap between the leading two and the rest has just kept widening with each cycle. Smriti Mandhana for Royal Challengers Bengaluru at ₹3.40 crore in 2023 is still numero uno. Right behind her is Deepti Sharma for UP Warriorz at ₹3.20 crore in 2026.
Then you have Shikha Pandey, also for UP Warriorz, at ₹2.40 crore in 2026, followed by Jemimah Rodrigues for Delhi Capitals at ₹2.20 crore in 2023, and Shafali Verma, also a Delhi Capital, at ₹2.00 crore in 2023. Deepti Sharma, an absolute force, has actually appeared twice on the biggest buys list. She first went to UP Warriorz for ₹2.60 crore in 2023 before making her grand return to them for ₹3.20 crore three years later. That initial 2023 figure made her the most expensive Indian all-rounder in the competition at the time. What a player!
So, get ready! The WPL 2027 auction kicks off on Wednesday, October 28, at the Grand Hyatt in Kochi, Kerala, with proceedings beginning at 5:30 PM IST. You can catch all the action televised live on the Star Sports Network or stream it on JioHotstar. The biggest question of the day is: will anyone, finally, finally, shatter Smriti Mandhana’s historic auction record? With the Warriorz having such deep pockets, this could be the year! You won’t want to miss a single bid.
This article was created with AI assistance and published under Seattle On Tap’s editorial standards. See our Editorial Policy.
Originally reported by Yahoo Sports.
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