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.
Now let’s come to their auction buys. The Warriorz triggered the first Right to Match (RTM) card of the evening to get back their last season’s captain and 2025 Women’s World Cup Player of the Tournament Deepti Sharma, matching Delhi’s bid of Rs. 3.2 crore.
Coming into he auction with the biggest purse, the UP-based team made a lot of overseas buys in the early stages of the auction, like getting all-rounder Sophie Ecclestone for Rs. 85 lakh, buying former DC captain Meg Lanning for Rs. 1.9 crore, and bagging Aussie batter Phoebe Litchfield for Rs. 1.2 crore.
UP Warriorz then used another RTM card, this time to get Kiran Navgire back into their squad. Indian Cricket Team players Harleen Deol, Kranti Gaud, and Asha Sobhana found their way into the Warriorz squad for 50, 50 and 110 lakhs respectively.
An underrated buy for this team was West Indies all-rounder Deandra Dottin for Rs. 80 lakh. On the other hand, in what was their second-most expensive buy of the night, UP acquired the services of all-rounder Shikha Pandey for Rs. 2.4 crore.
By this time, we were in the accelerated rounds of the auction, and hence the following buys are a little low-profile and less expensive. So, the following are the players and their prices that went to the UP Warriorz
- Shipra Giri – Rs. 10 lakh
- Simran Shaikh – Rs. 10 lakh
- Tara Norris – Rs. 10 lakh
- Chloe Tyron 0 Rs. 30 lakh
- Suman Meena – Rs. 10 lakh
The Warriorz’ last buy of the evening was Indian batter Pratika Rawal, who had gone unsold earlier in the auction. She was bought for Rs. 50 lakh.
UP Warriorz Full Squad WPL 2026
Here is the UP Warriorz full squad after WPL 2026 Auction
Batters – Shweta Sehrawat, Meg Lanning (O), Phoebe Litchfield (O), Kiran Navgire, Harleen Deol, Simran Shaikh, Pratika Rawal
All-rounders – Deepti Sharma, Shikha Pandey, Asha Sobhana, Deandra Dottin (O), Chloe Tyron (O), Suman Meena, G Trisha, Tara Norris (O)
Bowlers – Sophie Ecclestone (O), Kranti Gaud
*O – Overseas
Get the Latest Cricket Updates at IceCric.News. Also, Follow Our Social Media for live updates on Facebook and Instagram.
