The Women’s Premier League (WPL) 2026 mega-auction in New Delhi on Thursday will begin with a star-studded marquee set featuring Deepti Sharma, Renuka Singh, Alyssa Healy, Meg Lanning and Laura Wolvaardt among others.

But while the big names will attract the five franchises, they will be keen to rope in India’s rising talent, those they can build for the future.

A total of 277 players — 194 Indian and 83 overseas — will go under the hammer. The franchises will be looking to fill a maximum of 73 slots, including 50 Indians and 23
overseas.

After the first 67 players have been presented, the accelerated round will begin. For that, the franchises will nominate a set number of players from the remaining lot.

Once that is done, the franchises can submit the names of unpresented or unsold players from the full list of 277 for further bidding.

The teams could go hard for former Australia captain Lanning, who has rediscovered her form in the ongoing WBBL. New Zealand’s Amelia Kerr and Australia’s Phoebe Litchfield should trigger bidding wars.

The South African pair of Wolvaardt and Nadine de Klerk will also attract huge interest, thanks to their performances in the recent ODI World Cup. wOf the overall purse of ₹15 crore, UP Warriorz still have ₹14.50 crore.

Gujarat Giants have the next biggest purse, ₹9 crore. They are followed by RCB (₹6.15 crore), MI (₹5.75 crore) and DC (₹5.70 crore).

Both MI and DC need to buy at least ten players each.