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Days after leading India to the 2025 ICC Women's Cricket World Cup and becoming the first-ever female captain to lead India to glory in a global event, Harmanpreet Kaur made a major sacrifice for the Mumbai Indians (MI) as the retentions of the Women's Premier League (WPL) were announced. Despite her stature as the Indian captain, who is now a World Cup-winning skipper, Harmanpreet agreed not to be MI's top retention and will be the second-highest player in the upcoming cycle. England captain Nat Sciver-Brunt will be the two-time champions' most expensive player. Nat will be paid Rs. 3.5 crore by MI while Harmanpreet will get Rs. 2.5 crore. This is a nearly 40% pay rise (38.8%) for Harmanpreet, who was paid Rs. 1.8 crore over the last three seasons after the first-ever auction in 2023. Nat has been the most important cog of the Harmanpreet-led side's incredible success that has seen them win the title in two of the three seasons so far. The England cricket star is the tournament's leading run-getter with 1072 runs. She is also the fifth-highest wicket-taker with 32 wickets to her name. Also Read: WPL 2026 Auction: Retained List, Purse Remaining, RTMs Available, Players Up For Grabs - All You Need To Know Smriti Mandhana Breaks Own Record Meanwhile, Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) captain Smriti Mandhana also got a pay rise of Rs. 10 Lakhs. She will earn Rs. 3.5 crore, having earned Rs. 3.4 crores in the last three seasons. This means she will retain her status as the league's highest-paid player by breaking a record she owns. However, she is now not the outright holder of the elusive tag, with Nat and Gujarat Giants' Ash Gardner earning the same. Attention will now turn towards the mega auction scheduled to take place on November 27 in Delhi. UP Warriors will have the highest purse, having retained just one player. The salary cap for each franchise has also increased to Rs. 15 crore this year from Rs. 12 crore in the inaugural season. Get Latest News Live on Times Now along with Breaking News and Top Headlines from Sports, Cricket and around the world.
