Women's Premier League is likely to begin in January in 2026
The final might take place early in February
Mumbai Indians are the defending champions
The Women's Premier League (WPL) will begin earlier than usual in its next season in 2026 with a lot of big decisions set to be taken ahead of what will be the fourth season of world's premium women's T20 league. Mumbai Indians, led by India skipper Harmanpreet Kaur, are the defending champions.
As per a report published on Cricbuzz on Monday, the WPL will begin in the second week of January 2026. "The 2026 edition of the WPL is likely to begin on January 6 or 8," states the report.
Being the biggest franchise T20 tournament for women in the world, WPL gets a window for its own like the Women's Big Bash League and The Hundred for Women.
With the tournament starting by January 8, the final could be schedule in early February.
Till now, WPL has never taken place in January and all the finals have been organised in March. The inaugural season ran from March 4 to March 26. The next two seasons ran from mid February to March. This could be the first time that the tournament will start in January and will end before entering March.
WPL 2026 Format
The format is set to remain the same with five teams participating for a double round-robin tournament league phase followed by a two-match play-off to decide the champion.
As per the report, BCCI has yet to decide the venues for the tournament. Last year, the tournament was expanded to four cities. The inaugural season had taken place entirely in Mumbai and the second season Bengaluru and Delhi being added to the venue list.
Last season, Delhi did not host a game but two new centres were added in Baroda and Lucknow.
The other interesting thing to watch out for is going to be the size of the auction. In the Indian Premier League (IPL), the mega auction takes place after every three years where teams are able to retain only a few players while all others go into the auction.
Three seasons have taken place in the WPL and now it remains to be seen whether the women's league will also follow the same path as laid by its men's counterpart.
