Smriti Mandhana and Harmanpreet Kaur among big players retained ahead of WPL 2026 Auction: Report

Among the most talented, interesting, and venerable names that have reportedly been retained as far as the Women's Premier League (WPL) goes, ahead of the 2026 auction, Harmanpreet Kaur, Smriti Mandhana,

and Jemimah Rodrigues are the prominent. These are the three powerful names, each of which belongs to three individual powerful teams that have quite simply made the WPL a true spectacle to cherish and enjoy. Which actually also points to the fact that it isn't too hard to understand why Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) would have wanted to - and did retain - Smriti Mandhana, much like the Mumbai Indians (MI) captain, Harmanpreet Kaur.

And finally, Jemimah Rodrigues is the likeliest to be retained by her Delhi Capitals (DC) side. Each of these three are prominent, noted and redoubtable performers. Harmanpreet Kaur's game has elevated to a stature where she is the World Cup-winning captain, besides being a gutsy batter for Mumbai. On the other hand, Smriti Mandhana stays forth with her RCB team as the dominant batter and combiner of excellence and grit, which she is anyway known for. She's also a WIPL title winner and that huge difference.

WPL retentions are officially set to be announced very soon

Three names, a trinity of class and dependability in women's cricket, will continue to strive for excellence for three of the biggest teams in the checkered franchise league called the Women's IPL and that's absolutely brilliant news for just about everybody.

But having said that, what's rather interesting is that star players in the famous WIPL tournament, such as Australian Meg Lanning, Alyssa Healy, and White Ferns unit's Amelia Kerr have all been released by their outfits and are set to enter the auction pool. At times, it takes two to tango and three to raise the bar of excitement in T20s to a whole new decree. And by the looks of it, this is what it seems to be at the moment.