WPL 2027 to Run January 14-February 7, With the Player Auction Set for October 28 in Kochi

The BCCI has locked in the calendar for the fifth edition of the Women's Premier League, confirming that WPL 2027 will run from January 14 to February 7, 2027, with the player auction set for October 28 at the Grand Hyatt in Kochi. It's the first full set of WPL 2027 dates to be made official, and it slots the tournament directly ahead of a first-of-its-kind event on the women's calendar.

The key dates

Franchises have until September 28 — this weekend — to finalise their player retentions before the auction pool is set. The auction itself follows a month later, on October 28, at the Grand Hyatt Kochi, giving all five franchises roughly eleven weeks between the auction and the tournament's opening match to build their squads and plan their campaigns.

Why the tight turnaround to the Champions Trophy matters

WPL 2027 closing on February 7 leaves barely a week before the inaugural ICC Women's Champions Trophy, a new six-team event scheduled to begin on February 14. That back-to-back scheduling is deliberate rather than accidental — it means WPL form will carry directly into national selection conversations for a tournament with no previous edition to draw comparisons from, raising the stakes on every individual performance in January.

What it means for retentions and the auction pool

With the retention deadline landing before the end of this month, franchises now have a hard cut-off to decide how much of their core group — built up over four previous editions — they keep intact versus how much fresh talent they chase at the Kochi auction. Retained-versus-released calls made this week will shape how deep the auction pool looks by the time bidding opens on October 28.

The bigger picture for India's women's calendar

This scheduling also follows India's Asian Games campaign and comes on the back of a packed few months of women's cricket, from the Women's Asia Cup to bilateral series against Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. Stacking WPL and the new Champions Trophy back to back in January-February effectively turns the first six weeks of 2027 into the busiest stretch on the women's international and franchise calendar to date.

What to watch before the auction

Expect retention announcements from all five franchises to trickle out over the coming days as the September 28 deadline approaches, followed by a clearer picture of marquee overseas names entering the pool once the BCCI releases the full player list ahead of October 28. Squad-building storylines — who each side keeps, who they let go, and which uncapped Indian players get picked up — will dominate WPL coverage between now and the season's January 14 opener.

Following the build-up

Track retention news, the auction and WPL 2027 fixtures as they're confirmed on SportGod's blog, with fantasy contests open in SportGod's free games and AI-powered previews on SportGod's predictions page once the season draws closer.

The WPL 2027 dates, auction venue and retention deadline are verified against same-day reporting on the BCCI's schedule confirmation, current as of September 22, 2026.