WPL franchises finalised their retention and release lists for the 2027 season on September 28, setting the shape of each squad ahead of the mega auction scheduled for October 28 in Kochi. The headline theme across the three biggest-spending franchises was continuity at the top: none of Royal Challengers Bengaluru, Mumbai Indians or Delhi Capitals parted with their most recognisable stars.
RCB retained Smriti Mandhana, Richa Ghosh, Ellyse Perry, Shreyanka Patil, Georgia Voll, Nadine de Klerk, Radha Yadav, Lauren Bell, Prema Rawat, Arundhati Reddy, Pooja Vastrakar and Prathyoosha Kumar — keeping the batting and bowling spine that has anchored the franchise's recent campaigns intact. Released were Grace Harris, Linsey Smith, Gautami Naik and Dayalan Hemalatha, freeing up auction purse without touching Mandhana or the core domestic contingent.
MI's list reads as a vote of confidence in the group that has carried the franchise's recent form: Harmanpreet Kaur, Amelia Kerr, Hayley Matthews, Nat Sciver-Brunt, Amanjot Kaur, Nicola Carey, Rahila Firdous, Sajeevan Sajana, Sanskruti Gupta, Shabnim Ismail and Vaishnavi Sharma all stay on. The released list — Poonam Khemnar, Saika Ishaque, Triveni Vasistha, Nalla Reddy, Milly Illingworth and G Kamalini — is made up largely of squad players who saw limited game time last season.
DC retained a long list built around their top order: Jemimah Rodrigues, Shafali Verma, Deeya Yadav, Niki Prasad, Minnu Mani, N Charani, Mamatha Madiwala, Nandini Sharma, Laura Wolvaardt, Annabel Sutherland, Chinelle Henry, Lucy Hamilton and Marizanne Kapp. Among the released names, Lizelle Lee, Taniyaa Bhatia, Alana King, Pragati Singh, E Srujana and Sneha Rana head into the auction pool looking for a fresh franchise.
With Mandhana, Rodrigues, Wolvaardt, Harmanpreet and Verma all off the market, the marquee names available at the October 28 auction will skew toward players released by these three sides plus whatever Gujarat Giants and UP Warriorz choose to let go once their own lists are finalised. For fantasy and prediction purposes, it also means the core batting units at RCB, MI and DC are settled well ahead of the new season — continuity that should make early-season form easier to read than in years when squads are rebuilt from scratch.
Gujarat Giants and UP Warriorz retention details are expected to follow the same process, with all franchises' purse remaining set to be published before the Kochi auction. The auction itself will decide how many overseas and uncapped slots each squad still needs to fill.
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Team-by-team retention and release lists are verified against same-day and freshly re-checked reporting, current as of September 28, 2026.
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