IPL 2026 auction likely on December 15; expected to be held in India

Mumbai: The Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 auction is likely to be held on December 15, TOI has learnt. The last two IPL auctions were held in Dubai (2023) and then in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia (2024). This time the mini-auction could be in India but no official decision has been taken yet. The retention deadline for IPL franchises is November 15.

Meanwhile, the Womens Premier League (WPL) auction is set to take place on November 27 in Delhi. This will be the first mega auction of the WPL since the inaugural auction before the first edition of the league.

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There has been no news on the trading front so far in the IPL, with even the much-talked about Sanju Samson move from the Rajasthan Royals not happening so far.

Indias 2025 Womens ODI World Cup-winning captain Harmanpreet Kaur (Mumbai Indians), vice-captain and superstar Smriti Mandhana (Royal Challengers Bengaluru), and their World Cup winning teammates Jemimah Rodrigues and Shafali Verma (Delhi Capitals) have all been retained by the WPL franchises ahead of the 2026 mega auction.

The UP Warriorz have released Indias star allrounder Deepti Sharma, who took a staggering 22 wickets in nine matches at an average of 20.40 and scored 215 runs @ 30.71, with three fifties, and was the Player of the Tournament in the World Cup, but are likely to use the Right-to-Match card to retain her.

This will be the first time that the RTM card will be used in the WPL auction. Deepti led the Warriorz - who have only retained young batter Shweta Sehrawat - in Alyssa Healys absence in 2025.

The Mumbai Indians (Harmanpreet Kaur, Nat Sciver-Brunt, Amanjot Kaur, G Kamalini and Hayley Matthews) and Delhi Capitals (Jemimah Rodrigues, Shafali Verma, Marizanne Kapp, Annabel Sutherland and Niki Prasad) have both retained five players each - the maximum allowed in the WPL.

The Gujarat Giants have retained the Aussie duo of Ashleigh Gardner and Beth Mooney, while RCB have retained Mandhana, Ellyse Perry, Richa and Shreyanka Patil.

Australias Healy and Meg Lanning, along with New Zealand allrounder Amelia Kerr, are set to enter the auction pool after being released by their respective teams.

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