The Women's Big Bash League is back. WBBL|12 — the 12th season of Australia's women's T20 franchise league — runs from Thursday 29 October to Saturday 5 December 2026, 38 days of almost non-stop cricket to decide whether anyone can take the trophy away from the Hobart Hurricanes.
Here is the shape of the season. Eight teams play 43 matches in total: 40 league games, then a Knockout, a Challenger and the Final. Every team plays 10 league matches. The side that finishes top of the table goes straight to the Final — and hosts it. The season opens with a double-header at Junction Oval in Melbourne on 29 October, and it ends under lights on 5 December at the home ground of the league's top team.
The defending champions are Hobart, and their story gives this season its edge. The Hurricanes won their first-ever title in WBBL|11, becoming the seventh different team to lift the trophy. Now they have to defend it — and recent history says that is the hardest job in this league. No side has retained the title since the Adelaide Strikers won back-to-back in 2022-23 and 2023-24, so Hobart are chasing a rare repeat. Chasing them are two-time champions in the Sydney Sixers, Sydney Thunder, Brisbane Heat and Adelaide Strikers, the 2021-22 champions Perth Scorchers — beaten finalists last season and desperate for revenge — the WBBL|10 champions Melbourne Renegades, and a Melbourne Stars side still hunting its first title.
This guide has everything you need for the season: the complete 43-match schedule with dates, venues and local start times, the format and this season's two new rules, a team-by-team guide to all eight squads, notes on every venue, and a full recap of last season — the records, the final, and the numbers WBBL|12's stars have to beat.
WBBL|12 at a Glance
Format and New Rules
The format is simple. Each of the eight teams plays 10 league matches. The top four on the points table advance to the finals, but they do not all advance on equal terms — where you finish decides how hard your road is.
Finish first and you go straight to the Final, which you host. Finish second and you host the Challenger. Finish third or fourth and you meet in the Knockout, hosted by the third-placed team; the winner travels to play the second-placed team in the Challenger, and the Challenger winner goes on to the Final. In short: top spot buys you a week off and a home final, while third and fourth have to win two away games just to get there.
WBBL|12 also brings two rule changes worth knowing.
The designated batter. For the first time, a team may nominate a designated batter — a player who can bat but does not have to field or bowl. Expect teams to use this in two ways: to pick a pure power-hitter who only bats, or to keep a key batter in the side when she is carrying a small injury and cannot field a full 20 overs. It adds a genuine tactical choice to every team selection this season.
Tighter over-rate penalties. Teams that fall behind the over-rate timer will now face full powerplay fielding restrictions as a penalty. In plain terms: bowl your overs slowly, and you will be defending with fewer fielders on the boundary at the end of the innings. Slow over-rates just became very expensive, and captains will be watching the clock as closely as the score.
WBBL|12 Full Schedule
Here is every match of the season. All start times are venue local times.
October fixtures
November fixtures
The finals
The Eight Teams
Adelaide Strikers
Captain: Tahlia McGrath. Key players: McGrath, Megan Schutt, Laura Wolvaardt.
The Strikers know exactly how to win this competition — they did it in 2022-23 and again in 2023-24, the only back-to-back titles of recent years. Last season they finished just outside the top four, which for a side with Schutt's new-ball quality and Wolvaardt's runs at the top will feel like a missed opportunity. Write them off at your peril.
Brisbane Heat
Captain: Georgia Redmayne. Key players: Redmayne, Jess Jonassen, Grace Harris.
Champions in 2018-19 and 2019-20, the Heat are one of the league's most consistent sides, built around Jonassen's all-round control and Harris's power. With wicketkeeper Redmayne leading them this season, Brisbane will again expect to be playing finals cricket in December.
Hobart Hurricanes
Captain: Elyse Villani. Key players: Villani, Lizelle Lee, Danni Wyatt-Hodge, Nat Sciver-Brunt.
The defending champions. Hobart topped the table last season and then destroyed the final, finally winning the title that had always escaped them. The core of that winning side is back — Lee's power, Wyatt-Hodge's runs, Sciver-Brunt's class — and Villani's team now has to handle the one thing it has never faced before: being the side everyone wants to beat.
Melbourne Renegades
Captain: Sophie Molineux. Key players: Molineux, Georgia Wareham, Hayley Matthews.
The WBBL|10 champions have arguably the most valuable player in the league. Wareham was Player of the Tournament last season — the league's joint-top wicket-taker and a dangerous lower-order hitter — and with Molineux leading and Matthews adding Caribbean firepower, the Renegades have match-winners in every department.
Melbourne Stars
Captain: Meg Lanning. Key players: Lanning, Annabel Sutherland, Marizanne Kapp.
The Stars are the only one of the eight franchises still chasing a first title, and they have put their faith in the most successful captain the women's game has known. Lanning was voted second only to Wareham for Player of the Tournament last season, Sutherland keeps growing into a genuine all-round force, and Kapp remains one of the world's great new-ball bowlers. If the Stars' year is ever going to come, this squad gives them a real chance.
Perth Scorchers
Captain: Sophie Devine. Key players: Devine, Beth Mooney, Alana King.
Last season's runners-up, and the team with the biggest score to settle. Perth had to win two finals matches just to reach the decider, then watched Hobart chase their total down in 15 overs. They still have the league's run machine — Mooney topped the WBBL|11 scoring charts with 549 runs — plus Devine's leadership and King's leg-spin. Champions in 2021-22, the Scorchers know the way back.
Sydney Sixers
Captain: Ashleigh Gardner. Key players: Gardner, Ellyse Perry, Alyssa Healy.
Two-time champions with the most decorated squad in the league. Gardner led from the front with the ball last season, taking 19 wickets to finish as the joint-top wicket-taker, and any side that can call on Perry and Healy starts every match with an advantage. The Sixers' stars are ageing in years only — on paper, this is still the team nobody wants to face.
Sydney Thunder
Captain: Phoebe Litchfield. Key players: Litchfield, Heather Knight, Chamari Athapaththu.
Two-time champions led by one of the youngest captains in the league. Litchfield's appointment is a statement about where the Thunder see their future, and she has serious experience around her: Knight, one of the calmest leaders and most reliable batters in the world game, and Athapaththu, who can take a match away in a single powerplay.
Venues
Eight grounds host WBBL|12, from boutique suburban ovals to two of the most famous stadiums in world cricket.
Junction Oval, Melbourne — The season's launchpad. Junction Oval hosts the opening double-header on 29 October and eight league matches in all, the most of any venue. The ground now has permanent floodlights, which means this season's opener will be the first WBBL match played under them.
Allan Border Field, Brisbane — The Heat's home and one of the true cricket grounds of the women's game — a proper cricket oval rather than a converted stadium. It hosts six matches, including a double-header day on 19 November.
Karen Rolton Oval, Adelaide — The Strikers' regular home, a picturesque ground in Adelaide's parklands. It hosts the final day of the league stage on 29 November, when finals places could be decided.
Adelaide Oval, Adelaide — One of the most beautiful stadiums in world cricket gets a single marquee fixture: the Strikers v Renegades night match on 20 November. Expect the biggest crowd of the league stage.
WACA Ground, Perth — The Scorchers' fortress and one of the fastest, bounciest pitches in world cricket. Visiting batters get no freebies here, and Perth's pace attack is built for its home conditions.
Drummoyne Oval, Sydney — A harbourside suburban ground that hosts six matches, including the Sydney festival weekend at the start of November.
North Sydney Oval, Sydney — A ground famous for big scores, with its short boundaries, heritage grandstands and city skyline behind the bowler's arm. It hosts six matches, including two Sydney derbies — Sixers v Thunder on 8 November and Thunder v Sixers on 28 November.
Bellerive Oval, Hobart — The Hurricanes' home, beneath Mount Wellington. Bellerive hosted last season's final, when Hobart won their first title in front of their own crowd — and if the Hurricanes top the table again, the final comes back here on 5 December.
WBBL|11 Recap: Last Season's Records
To understand what WBBL|12 has to live up to, start with the night Hobart finally did it.
For ten seasons, the Hurricanes were the league's nearly team — competitive most years, champions never. WBBL|11 changed that from the very start. Hobart topped the league table with 7 wins and 2 losses from their 10 matches (one no-result, 15 points), earning the direct route to a home final. Waiting for them on 13 December 2025 at Bellerive Oval were the Perth Scorchers, who had finished third and battled through two finals matches to get there.
Perth batted first and made 137 for 5. Sophie Devine top-scored with 34 and Beth Mooney made 33, but Hobart's bowlers kept the innings under control — Heather Graham took 2 for 26 and Linsey Smith a superb 2 for 8. It looked a par score on a good pitch. Then Lizelle Lee walked out.
Lee's innings decided the final in the first few overs. She finished 77 not out off 44 balls, with 10 fours and 4 sixes — the highest score ever made in a WBBL final, and an obvious Player of the Final performance. Nat Sciver-Brunt added 35 off 27 at the other end, and Hobart reached 141 for 2 in just 15 overs: champions by 8 wickets, with 30 balls to spare. The Hurricanes became the seventh different team to win the WBBL, and they did it in front of their own fans.
The individual records from WBBL|11 set the benchmarks for this season:
· Most runs: Beth Mooney (Perth Scorchers) — 549 runs, another season as the league's most reliable scorer. Hobart's top scorer was Danni Wyatt-Hodge, whose 432 runs powered the champions' campaign.
· Most wickets: Georgia Wareham (Melbourne Renegades) and Ashleigh Gardner (Sydney Sixers) — 19 wickets each.
· Player of the Tournament: Georgia Wareham, with 25 umpire votes, just ahead of Meg Lanning's 24. Wareham also collected the Golden Arm award as the league's leading wicket-taker: her 19 wickets came at an average of 10.94 with an economy rate of 5.47 — and, as if that was not enough, she also scored 277 runs at a strike rate of 147.34. It was one of the great all-round seasons in WBBL history.
That is the standard. Mooney's 549 runs, Wareham's double act with bat and ball, and a final won in 15 overs — WBBL|12's players know exactly what they are chasing.
Every WBBL Champion
Eleven seasons, seven different champions. The Sixers, Thunder, Heat and Strikers have all won it twice — nobody has won it three times, which tells you how even this league is.
Players to Watch in WBBL|12
Beth Mooney (Perth Scorchers) — The run machine. Last season's top scorer with 549 runs, and the batter every bowling attack plans for first. If Perth are going one better this year, Mooney will be at the centre of it.
Georgia Wareham (Melbourne Renegades) — The reigning Player of the Tournament and Golden Arm winner. Nineteen wickets at under 11 runs each, plus 277 runs at a strike rate of 147 — no player influenced more matches last season.
Lizelle Lee (Hobart Hurricanes) — The final hero. Her unbeaten 77 off 44 balls won Hobart their first title and set a WBBL final record. The champions' title defence starts with Lee walking out to open.
Meg Lanning (Melbourne Stars) — The master captain, still chasing the one thing missing from her WBBL story: a title for the Stars. She was voted the league's second-best player last season; her personal standard has not dropped at all.
Ashleigh Gardner (Sydney Sixers) — Last season's joint-top wicket-taker with 19, captaining a squad full of legends. Gardner's all-round game makes the Sixers dangerous in any conditions.
Sophie Devine (Perth Scorchers) — Perth's captain led them to last season's final the hard way, through two knockout games. Few players in the world hit a longer ball, and she will want this season's ending to be different.
Phoebe Litchfield (Sydney Thunder) — One of the youngest captains in the league, leading a two-time champion side. How Litchfield handles the job — and the senior stars around her — is one of the season's most interesting stories.
FAQs
When does WBBL|12 start and finish?
WBBL|12 starts on Thursday 29 October 2026 with a double-header at Junction Oval, Melbourne, and finishes with the Final on Saturday 5 December 2026 — 43 matches across 38 days.
How many matches does each team play?
Each of the eight teams plays 10 league matches. The top four reach the finals: the Knockout, the Challenger and the Final.
Who are the defending champions?
The Hobart Hurricanes. They won their first-ever title in WBBL|11, beating the Perth Scorchers by 8 wickets in the final at Bellerive Oval.
What is the designated batter rule?
New for WBBL|12, a team may nominate a designated batter — a player who can bat but does not have to field or bowl. Teams are expected to use it for a specialist power-hitter, or for a batter carrying a minor injury.
How does the WBBL finals system work?
The team finishing first goes straight to the Final and hosts it. Third plays fourth in the Knockout (1 December), the winner plays the second-placed team in the Challenger (3 December), and the Challenger winner advances to the Final.
Where is the WBBL|12 Final played?
The Final on 5 December is hosted by the team that finishes top of the league table — so the venue is not decided until the league stage ends. Last season, Hobart topped the table and hosted (and won) the final at Bellerive Oval.
The Bottom Line
WBBL|12 has a simple, delicious storyline: the champions nobody expected are defending a title that history says they cannot keep, against seven teams who all believe it should be theirs. It starts on 29 October at Junction Oval and never really stops until the final on 5 December.
Follow every ball of the season as it happens on our page for live cricket scores, plan your viewing with the full list of upcoming cricket matches, go deeper into the leagues behind this one in our guide to women's cricket leagues, and read more guides and analysis on the Cricvic blog.