WBBL | Season 12: eight clubs, eight stories
18 October 2026 · 8 min read
The twelfth WBBL starts at Junction Oval on Thursday 29 October and ends with the Final on Saturday 5 December. Eight clubs, ten games each, then a Knockout, a Challenger and a Final at the ladder leader’s ground. Thirty-eight days. 🏏
A lot has moved since the Hurricanes lifted the trophy last summer. The champions lost their captain to retirement. The runners-up signed Pakistan’s captain. The Sixers lost the most-capped keeper in the women’s game.
Three clubs have new coaches, and the Heat — winless through all of last season — have rebuilt. Here’s where each club stands going in, in the order they first take the field. 👇
1. Melbourne Renegades 🔴 — new coach, and the best all-rounder in the world is back
Sophie Molineux batting for the Melbourne Renegades, WBBL 2021–22. Photo: Bahnfrend, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (cropped).
The Renegades finished fifth last season, five wins and five losses, and have changed the man in charge: Gavan Twining replaces Simon Helmot. The bigger change is on the field.
Hayley Matthews, the West Indies captain and the most complete all-rounder in T20 cricket, missed all of WBBL|11 after shoulder surgery. She’s back. 💪 Beside her, Deandra Dottin, who hits a cricket ball as hard as anyone who has ever played the women’s game, and South Africa’s Chloe Tryon.
Around the three overseas players the spine is Australian: Sophie Molineux and Georgia Wareham with the ball, Tayla Vlaeminck’s pace when fit, Courtney Webb and Nicole Faltum in the middle. They lost Alice Capsey to the Sixers and Emma de Broughe to the Strikers, which hurts the batting depth. But a Renegades side with Matthews fit is a different proposition from the one that finished mid-table.
First game: v Sydney Thunder, Junction Oval, Thursday 29 October, 3:40 pm — the opener of the whole season. 🎬
2. Sydney Thunder ⚡ — Litchfield’s second year as captain, Knight’s fifth summer in green
Phoebe Litchfield batting for the Sydney Thunder, WBBL 2022–23. Photo: Bahnfrend, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (cropped).
Seventh last season, four wins from ten, and a quiet rebuild rather than a loud one. Phoebe Litchfield, still only 23, captains for a second season, with Georgia Voll alongside her at the top. Two of the most watchable young Australian batters, in the same side. 👀
The experience comes from England. Heather Knight, who retired from international cricket in July, arrives early for a fifth season with the club, and Lauren Bell brings new-ball pace. Nicola Hancock comes across from the Heat and Jemma Barsby from the Strikers.
The Thunder chose not to keep Chamari Athapaththu for a third year, and used the spot on Tahlia Wilson, the keeper-batter the Sixers also wanted. Lisa Keightley coaches. Watch the top order: if Litchfield and Voll both go, the Thunder score quickly enough to beat anyone.
First game: v Melbourne Renegades, Junction Oval, Thursday 29 October, 3:40 pm.
3. Melbourne Stars ⭐ — Lanning takes the captaincy back, three English signings
Meg Lanning, Melbourne Stars, WBBL 2025–26 at Karen Rolton Oval. Photo: Yu Chu Chin, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (cropped).
The Stars made the finals last season for the first time in five years and lost the Knockout. Then Annabel Sutherland stepped down as captain, and Meg Lanning — seven World Cups, two of them as captain — took the job back. 🏆 Richard Pyrah is the new coach, on a two-year deal.
Marizanne Kapp left a year early to manage an international schedule. In her place come three England players: Charlie Dean, the off-spinner, Dani Gibson, and keeper-batter Amy Jones. Kim Garth leads the Australian pace, Sophie Day the spin.
Sutherland, free of the captaincy, is the one to watch. She’s the best young all-rounder in the country and the Stars will want her bowling the hard overs. First game is under lights, under the Melbourne Star, at home. 🎡
First game: v Hobart Hurricanes, Junction Oval, Thursday 29 October, 7:10 pm.
4. Hobart Hurricanes 🟣 — champions, minus the captain who led them there
Nicola Carey bowling for the Hobart Hurricanes, WBBL 2019–20. Photo: Bahnfrend, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (cropped).
Hobart’s first WBBL title came last summer, and the club has kept almost all of the side that won it. The exception is the biggest: Elyse Villani, who captained the title run, has retired. Nat Sciver-Brunt is sitting the season out after an injury-hit home summer, which removes the other half of the engine.
What’s left is still the deepest squad in the competition. Nicola Carey, Heather Graham and Molly Strano re-signed before the movement window even opened. Lizelle Lee, Rachel Trenaman and Callie Wilson make up the batting; England’s Danni Wyatt-Hodge and Linsey Smith are back; Chinelle Henry comes from the Heat and Ella Hayward from the Stars. Jude Coleman coaches.
Only two clubs have ever defended a WBBL title — the Sixers in 2017–18 and the Strikers in 2023–24. 🤔 Hobart’s first game is away in St Kilda, under lights, against the side that nearly beat them to the finals.
First game: v Melbourne Stars, Junction Oval, Thursday 29 October, 7:10 pm. First home game: v Renegades, Bellerive, Wednesday 4 November.
5. Brisbane Heat 🔥 — after a winless season, a rebuild around the ones who stayed
Allan Border Field, Brisbane. Photo: Commander Keane, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (cropped).
Last season the Heat became the first side to go through a WBBL without a win: nine losses and a washout, and a first missed finals in seven years. The response was to lock in the core. Jess Jonassen, Grace Harris, Georgia Redmayne, and Lucy Hamilton — last season’s Young Gun and a recent Australian debutant — are all staying. 🔒
The overseas mix has changed. Jemimah Rodrigues and Chinelle Henry have gone; in come Ireland’s Orla Prendergast, one of the most improved all-rounders in the world, and England leg-spinner Sarah Glenn for the full season, after she took 4-18 against the Thunder as a late replacement last year.
Charli Knott and Grace Parsons carry the middle. Harris was left out of Australia’s T20 squad for the New Zealand series, which means she’s available for all of it, with something to prove. Mark Sorell coaches. The Heat open at home on the second night of the season.
First game: v Sydney Sixers, Allan Border Field, Friday 30 October, 7:10 pm.
6. Sydney Sixers 🩷 — life after Healy, and the Hundred’s best batter arrives
Ellyse Perry bowling for the Sydney Sixers, WBBL 2022–23. Photo: Bahnfrend, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (cropped).
Third last season, out in the Challenger, and now the first season in the club’s history without Alyssa Healy, who retired from all cricket. That leaves a gap at the top of the order and behind the stumps. Alice Capsey, signed from the Renegades, may take the gloves. 🧤
The batting still reads like a national side: Ellyse Perry, Ashleigh Gardner, Erin Burns, and England’s Sophia Dunkley, who was prolific here last summer and has since won The Hundred. Amelia Kerr, New Zealand’s leg-spinning all-rounder, is the third overseas player.
Lauren Cheatle and Maitlan Brown lead the pace. Sarah Coyte arrives from the Renegades and Maddy Darke from the Scorchers, though Darke started the pre-season out with a bone-stress injury. Peter Clarke, from the NSW Breakers, is the new coach after Matthew Mott moved to the men’s side.
The derby against the Thunder is on Sunday 8 November at North Sydney Oval. 🍿
First game: v Brisbane Heat, Allan Border Field, Friday 30 October, 7:10 pm.
7. Adelaide Strikers 🔵 — one run from the finals, and the world’s best spinner for a full season
Laura Wolvaardt batting for the Adelaide Strikers, WBBL 2021–22. Photo: Bahnfrend, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (cropped).
The Strikers missed last season’s finals by a single run. 😬 It was a season that also had two washouts and a game abandoned after a ball was accidentally rolled onto the pitch.
The squad is the most settled in the competition: Tahlia McGrath, Megan Schutt, Darcie Brown and Amanda-Jade Wellington, with Bridget Patterson and Maddie Penna in the batting. The overseas three are the strongest on paper anywhere — England’s Sophie Ecclestone, the number-one bowler in the world, South Africa’s Laura Wolvaardt, and Maia Bouchier from the Stars.
Emma de Broughe comes from the Renegades; Tammy Beaumont and Jemma Barsby have gone. Luke Williams coaches. The Strikers get Adelaide Oval for one Friday night, 20 November against the Renegades, for the fourth year running. 🏟️
First game: v Melbourne Stars, Karen Rolton Oval, Saturday 31 October, 3:40 pm AEDT.
8. Perth Scorchers 🟠 — runners-up, with Pakistan’s captain for the first eight games
Beth Mooney batting for the Perth Scorchers, WBBL 2021–22. Photo: Bahnfrend, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (cropped).
Beaten in last season’s Final, and the Scorchers have kept the side that got there. Beth Mooney, Alana King, Katie Mack, Chloe Ainsworth and Lilly Mills stay, with New Zealand’s Sophie Devine and England’s Freya Kemp as two of the overseas three.
The third is the news. Fatima Sana, Pakistan’s captain, joins for the opening eight games — only the second Pakistan woman to play in the WBBL, after Nida Dar. 🇵🇰
Maddy Darke has gone to the Sixers and Paige Scholfield back to England. Becky Grundy coaches. The WACA hosts four games, the first of them on the opening weekend against the Renegades — the first look at Matthews and Dottin in the west.
First game: v Melbourne Renegades, WACA Ground, Saturday 31 October, 7:10 pm AEDT (4:10 pm in Perth).
The shape of the season 🗓️
Forty league games, 29 October to 29 November. Junction Oval hosts ten, Drummoyne Oval and North Sydney Oval six each, Allan Border Field five, Karen Rolton Oval, the WACA and Bellerive four each, and Adelaide Oval one.
Top four go on: the Knockout on Tuesday 1 December (3rd v 4th), the Challenger on Thursday 3 December (2nd v the Knockout winner), and the Final on Saturday 5 December at the ladder leader’s ground.
The Sydney derby is Sunday 8 November. The Melbourne derby is Sunday 22 November. Both derbies again on the last Saturday, 28 November. 🔁
Every game is on the official WBBL and club pages, and the Spring Challenge — the nine-team pre-season in Sydney that finishes on 21 October — is the last look at form before the real thing.
If your team, office or family wants a ladder of its own for the forty-three games, WBBL | Season 12 is in TippingMates: everyone picks who they think will win each game, the app keeps score, whoever gets the most right wins. A scoreboard, not a bookmaker — no money, no odds, no prizes. 🏏