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WPL 2026 Schedule: BCCI announce dates and venues for 4th edition of tournament; first-time hosts for finals
WPL 2026 will take place between 9th January and 5th February 2026, with Mumbai Indians vs Royal Challengers Bengaluru kicking off the tournament.
With the Women’s Premier League rosters set for the 2026 season after this week’s auction, the wheels are in motion for the new cycle and the fourth edition of the tournament. The BCCI announced the full schedule for the tournament, and fans will start marking key dates as action returns for the stars of the women’s game in January and February of 2026.
This year the tournament will take place a month earlier than usual, with the men’s T20 World Cup scheduled for the regular February-March slot. This means the tournament will start very early, on 9th January, as defending champions Mumbai Indians led by Harmanpreet Kaur take on Smriti Mandhana’s Royal Challengers Bengaluru.
The first portion of the tournament will take place at the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai, where the women’s team for India scripted their famous World Cup victory not too long ago. It will be one of the two venues used for this edition of the tournament, as the WPL maintains its caravan-style format for the moment.
The first 11 matches of the league stage will be held in Navi Mumbai, before the last nine group stage matches and the entirety of the playoffs will move to Vadodara, where the Kotambi Stadium will host the final for the first time in WPL history.
The league will also retain the playoff system of the top-ranked team heading directly to the final while the second and third-placed teams face off in an eliminator. The eliminator will be played Tuesday, 3rd February, while the final is oddly set to take place on a Thursday, on 5th February 2026.
Key matches to watch out for in the initial stages of the tournament will include the rematch of last year’s final between Mumbai Indians and Delhi Capitals, with the Capitals expected to announce Jemimah Rodrigues as the new captain after Meg Lanning’s departure.
There are two double-header days pencilled into the schedule: these will be on January 10 and January 17, with the two games being UP Warriorz vs Gujarat Giants and UP Warriorz vs Mumbai Indians. Navi Mumbai will host both these day games.
Gujarat Giants will host RCB on 19th January, which will be the first match of the tournament in Vadodara. For the Vadodara leg of the tournament, there are as many as six rest days worked into the schedule, to ensure the five-team league receives enough time for rest and recovery in the second half of the tournament.
