The 2026 WPL is being played in two 11-match parts, at Navi Mumbai and Vadodara. Here are the mid-season report cards for all five franchises.
Royal Challengers Bengaluru: Four matches, eight points, NRR +1.6
So prolific have RCB been in 2026 that even Ellyse Perry’s absence could not hurt them. Nadine de Klerk might have pulled off a heist in the tournament opener, but their other three wins have been one-sided. Like many great teams, their success has had not one but many heroes. “There have been multiple people chipping in and we have just found a way at the moment to keep scoring runs when there is pressure applied, or we have taken wickets when it seems like other teams can’t,” summed up Grace Harris.
With 89 runs (strike rate 159) and eight wickets (economy 7.66), de Klerk has been at the heart of RCB’s success. But so have been Smriti Mandhana (166 runs at 145) and Harris (128 at 200).
Taking excellent advantage of the early movement in Navi Mumbai, Lauren Bell has bowled 61 dot balls in 16 overs so far, supplementing an economy of 5.31 in a high-scoring edition with eight wickets. Radha Yadav hit a fifty to lift RCB from 43-4 to 182-7. Shreyanka Patil took a five-wicket haul. Georgia Voll hit a fifty in her only game.
So prolific have RCB been that Richa Ghosh’s power-hitting has gone virtually unutilised. Against Delhi Capitals, they backed both Sayali Satghare and Prema Rawat: they shared five wickets for 43 runs in six overs in their only outings with the ball in this edition.
RCB’s journey has been perfect so far: they can only hope to have not peaked too early.
Mumbai Indians: Five matches, four points, NRR +0.151
MI had recovered from the tournament opener to win their next two matches easily before the UP Warriorz beat them comfortably twice in the space of three days.
In the first, they used Amanjot Kaur and G Kamalini as openers. As the UPW new-ball bowlers swung the new ball, MI crawled to 32 in six overs – the second-lowest wicketless powerplay score in WPL history. Their eventual 161-5 was never going to be enough. In the second, they made at least three glaring fielding errors – they missed a run out, a stumping, and an easy catch – all in the space of three overs. Meg Lanning and Phoebe Litchfield took the game away.
The team charts look good on paper. Four MI batters – Harmanpreet Kaur, Nicola Carey, Amanjot, Nat Sciver-Brunt – have scored at least 100 runs while striking at 140 or more in WPL 2024. Amelia Kerr has 10 wickets. Shabnim Ismail has gone at under a run a ball. Sciver-Brunt and Carey have supplemented their batting with seven inexpensive wickets apiece. Their three defeats can be attributed to one ordinary passage of play in each game that the opposition took full advantage of.
With three matches to play – that too outside Navi Mumbai – MI now face a steep challenge, but they do have a knack of doing better in the second half.
Gujarat Giants: Four matches, four points, NRR -0.319
Coming into the season, GG had won only eight of their 25 WPL games. They seemed to have done better this time, starting with two wins – before losing their next two games. They have batted first on all four occasions.
GG made 207-4, 209, 192-5 in their first three games. The first two are the two highest scores in this edition, while the third is the fourth-highest by teams batting first. There is little doubt that they back their batters to do the heavy lifting, which they have.
With a 75-run cut-off, Bharti Fulmali (192), Sophie Devine (191), and Ash Gardner (163) have been three of the four quickest scorers of this edition. It does not end there: Kanika Ahuja, Georgia Wareham, and Anushka Sharma have all topped the 140-mark, while Beth Mooney and Kashvee Gautam have exceeded 135.
Even RCB (9.26) have not matched GG’s run rate of 9.61 this season. But then, they have gone at 9.79 an over, half a run clear of any other side. At 8.71 an over, Renuka Singh Thakur has been the only bowler with an economy under nine; and Devine (eight) has been the only one with five wickets.
The batting firepower has been able to earn GG four points, but they need more than that to make it to the top two.
UP Warriorz: Five matches, four points, NRR -0.483
After three defeats, UPW seemed headed for a dismal season before they won consecutive games against MI. To borrow a commentary cliche, the “momentum” is perhaps more with them than with GG.
Two of UPW’s three defeats were by massive margins when, batting first, they could not get going at all and ended up scoring 143-5 and 154-8 on pitches that were hardly tricky. Having conceded 207-4 in their first game, their bowlers never threatened to defend these low scores.
Yet, somehow, they turned things around in their last two games. In the first, Kranti Goud and Shikha Pandey swung the new ball prodigiously. When they came off, Deepti Sharma and Sophie Ecclestone ensured the pressure never waned. Then, having been retired out in the previous match, Harleen Deol shepherded the chase. In the next game, Lanning and Litchfield took advantage of MI’s fielding lapses before the bowlers ripped out half MI’s batting inside 11 overs.
The turnaround makes impressive reading, but perhaps has been UPW’s willingness to back their core: their only change after the three defeats was to recall Chloe Tryon for Deandra Dottin. Everyone else has played all five games.
It is going to be a steep climb, and will depend on how quickly UPW adapt to Vadodara.
Delhi Capitals: Four matches, two points, NRR -0.856
After a questionable outing at the mega auction, DC had probably banked their big guns to do the heavy lifting. Lizelle Lee has had 161 runs at 152 and Laura Wolvaardt 111 at 161, but barring the odd instance here and there (two from Shafali Verma, one each from Lucy Hamilton and Chinelle Henry), there has been no real support.
Among bowlers, Nandani Sharma is the only one with at least five wickets, but four of her wickets came in the last five balls of an innings when the GG batters were going for quick runs. Marizanne Kapp has been prolific, going for barely over a run a ball, but as with the batting, there have been too few contributors. From Jemimah Rodrigues to Sneh Rana to Shree Charani (world champions from two and a half months ago), the domestic stars have looked lacklustre.
For DC to make it big in Vadodara, contributions have to come from everyone in the team. So far, it has been only a handful of them – though, like UPW, the team management has backed the players.
