The defending champions Mumbai Indians, will start their campaign in WPL 2026 against Royal Challengers Bengaluru with the opening fixture on Friday, January 9
The core theme behind the jersey is the "Wicket Pulse," symbolizing Mumbai's relentless momentum.
Mumbai Indians have begun laying the groundwork for their WPL 2026 campaign, with the first session taking place on Tuesday at the franchise's training base in Bengaluru
Defending champions Mumbai Indians have appointed former Australian leg-spinner Kristen Beams as spin-bowling coach ahead of the 2026 Women's Premier League season. Beams was instrumental in Australia's World Cup campaigns, finishing as the third-highest wicket-taker at the 2017 ODI World Cup. Her international career spanned one Test, 30 ODIs and 18 T20Is, and 45 T20 games in the WBBL, prior to her transition to coaching. She has coached in the WBBL and The Hundred. She has also been coach of the Australia Women's U19 team, the National Development Lead at Cricket Australia and Community Cricket Manager - South at Cricket Tasmania. The fourth edition of the WPL will be held from January 9 to February 5.
Earlier, MI retained key players like Hardik Pandya, Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah, Suryakumar Yadav, Trent Boult, and Will Jacks.
The accelerated rounds featured further big purchases, including Pathum Nissanka, Jason Holder, Mustafizur Rahman, Liam Livingstone and Josh Inglis.
KKR will walk into the IPL 2026 players auction with the biggest purse, while five-time champions MI will have the smallest purse
PL 2026 mini auction: Cameron Green tops the list at Rs 25.20 cr. Check top 20 costliest buys, including Pathirana, Kartik Sharma and Prashant Veer, with teams and prices.
Under the IPL's maximum-fee rule, an overseas player's auction fee is capped at the lower of the highest retention slab and the highest price fetched at the previous mega auction.
Mumbai captain Shardul Thakur believes Sairaj Patil could attract big bids at the IPL 2026 auction, citing his Mumbai T20 League exploits and strong Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy showings.
The IPL 2026 Auction is scheduled to begin on December 16 (Tuesday), 2025. The IPL mini auction 2026 will begin at 2:30 PM IST.
On December 16, IPL 2026 auction is scheduled to start at 2:30 PM IST in Abu Dhabi. All the ten IPL franchisees are set to spent around Rs 237.55 crore to fill up 77 available slots.
The 2026 edition marks the WPL's first shift to a January-February slot, unlike previous seasons that ran from February to March ahead of the IPL
The two-time WPL champions left no one surprised when they used all five retention options ahead of the WPL 2026 mega auction, given how stable their squad was
The headline moment of the WPL 2026 auction came when India's star all-rounder Deepti Sharma returned to UP Warriorz via RTM for ₹3.2 crore
The second-most expensive deal of WPL 2026 auction came from Mumbai Indians, who signed New Zealand's Amelia Kerr for Rs 3 crore. UP bags Shikha for Rs 2.4 crore after intense bidding war with RCB
In the inaugural season, Smriti Mandhana became the most expensive signing, joining RCB Women for INR 3.40 crore.
IPL 2026's retention list is defined by three themes: the blockbuster Jadeja-Samson-Curran swap, the release of several global stars, and franchises making sharp value
The franchise released bowling all-rounder Arjun Tendulkar to Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) in an all-cash transfer, with the young left-armer set to join his new team at his existing fee of ₹30 lakh.
Markande, who made his IPL debut for Mumbai Indians in 2018, enjoyed a breakout season with a memorable three-wicket haul in his very first match.