RCB, Mumbai Indians and Delhi Capitals finalised their WPL 2027 retentions on September 28; the remaining two franchises, Gujarat Giants and UP Warriorz, followed a day later, on September 29, completing the retention picture across the full five-team league ahead of the October 28 mega auction in Kochi.
Gujarat Giants kept 15 players — more than any other WPL franchise — headlined by Sophie Devine, Ashleigh Gardner, Beth Mooney, Georgia Wareham and Kim Garth among the overseas contingent, alongside a substantial Indian core of Anushka Sharma, Bharti Fulmali, Happy Kumari, Jintimani Kalita, Kanika Ahuja, Kashvee Gautam, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Renuka Singh, Tanuja Kanwer and Yastika Bhatia, who currently also captains India A Women against Australia A. Released were Danni Wyatt-Hodge, Aayushi Soni, Titas Sadhu and Shivani Singh. With so much of the squad already locked in, Gujarat Giants go to the auction with the smallest purse of the five franchises — just ₹1.25 crore — to fill whatever gaps remain.
UP Warriorz retained 11 players, keeping their core largely intact: Deepti Sharma, Meg Lanning, Sophie Ecclestone, Harleen Deol, Phoebe Litchfield, Pratika Rawal, Kranti Gaud, Shikha Pandey, Shipra Giri, Simran Shaikh and Tara Norris. Released were Kiran Navgire, Chloe Tryon, Deandra Dottin, Asha Sobhana, Amy Jones and Shweta Sehrawat. UP Warriorz head to Kochi with a ₹3.65 crore purse and as many as seven open squad slots — considerably more auction firepower than Gujarat Giants, despite retaining a similar core of proven performers.
Between the two rounds of announcements, none of the league's headline overseas or Indian stars — Smriti Mandhana, Jemimah Rodrigues, Laura Wolvaardt, Harmanpreet Kaur, Sophie Devine or Deepti Sharma among them — have been released by their franchises. That leaves the marquee names in the auction pool drawn almost entirely from released squad players rather than headline retained ones, a pattern consistent across all five teams once Gujarat Giants and UP Warriorz's lists are added to Wednesday's RCB, Mumbai Indians and Delhi Capitals announcements.
With retention now finalised league-wide, purse depth becomes the story heading into October 28: UP Warriorz's larger available purse and seven open slots give them more room to reshape their squad than Gujarat Giants, who retained the most players of any franchise but left themselves the least room to spend. For fantasy and prediction purposes, the settled cores at all five franchises mean early WPL 2027 form should be easier to project than in a season built from scratch.
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Team-by-team retention and release lists and purse figures are verified against same-day and freshly re-checked reporting, current as of September 29, 2026.
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