The 2026 season of the Women’s Premier League (WPL) will be the fourth edition of arguably the most high-profile T20 franchise competition in women’s cricket. And for the first time since the league’s inception in 2023, a mega auction was held ahead of the start of the competition.
After the first-ever auction, the past two seasons have seen all the teams retain a majority of their squads before mini-auctions. However, this time around, a team could only retain a maximum of five players.
Today, we will look at the team that finished at the bottom of the table last season, UP Warriorz, the players they retained, and the buys they made in the mega-auction.
Since the inaugural WPL season, when the Warriorz finished third, they have failed to make it to the playoffs for two seasons in a row. So it is not a shock to anyone that one of the worst-performing teams in the league would not use all their retentions. However, it is a bit eyebrow-raising that they have retained only one player, the lowest of all the teams in the competition.
The total purse for each team to build their squad is Rs. 15 crore. The first retention guideline price is Rs. 2.5 crore, for the second is Rs. 2.5 crore, the third being Rs. 1.75 crore, the fourth being Rs. 1 crore, and the fifth retention priced at Rs. 50 lakh. A team can, at max, retain only three Indian and two overseas players. If a team does use all five retention slots, they have to use one of them for an uncapped player.
Releasing big-name players like Sophie Ecclestone, Tahlia McGrath, Grace Harris, Alana King, and team captain Deepti Sharma, they have retained former India U-19 batter Shweta Sehrawat for Rs. 50 lakh, who showed glimpses of brilliance for the side last season.
Here is the UP Warriorz full squad after WPL 2026 Auction
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