The Bengal Pro T20 League 2026 fields eight men’s franchises, each tied to a cluster of districts across West Bengal. Novus Royals Purulia are the newest addition, launched by the Cricket Association of Bengal in April 2026 to replace Harbour Diamonds, joining seven returning sides led by defending champions Adamas Howrah Warriors.

Season 3 also marks a structural shift, with the league running its first dedicated men’s auction in place of the older player-draft. Franchises spent more than 4.5 crore rupees across the men’s and women’s competitions, handing contracts to over 250 players from a pool of more than 1,000 cricketers.

Bengal Pro T20 League 2026 Teams and Captains

The captaincy list blends India internationals, established Bengal names and a few marquee leads whose match availability may depend on other commitments. 

Adamas Howrah Warriors

The defending champions resisted a rebuild and kept their winning core together. They retained last season’s vice-captain and new skipper Shakir Habib Gandhi along with inaugural Player of the Season Writtick Chatterjee, while Bengal Under-23 captain Shashank Singh adds youthful energy to the title defence.

Squad: Shakir Habib Gandhi, Kazi Junaid Saifi, Ankit Chatterjee, Shashank Singh, Vaibhav Yadav, Saksham Sharma, Writtick Chatterjee, Sujit Kumar Yadav, Triparna Samanta, Kanishk Seth, Yudhajit Guha, Pawan, B. Arun, Debojyoti Ghosh, Sayan Paul, Sonu Himanshu, Swastik Maiti

Sobisco Smashers Malda

The joint-2024 champions assembled arguably the auction’s strongest spine. A Right to Match card retained captain Mukesh Kumar for 9.60 lakh, and the franchise then landed Bengal captain Abhimanyu Easwaran for 8 lakh, pairing a Test-class opener with an India-capped new-ball bowler at the top of their order.

Squad: Mukesh Kumar, Agniv Pan, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Writam Porel, Ranjot Singh Khaira, Agastya Shukla, Kaif Ahmad, Prayas Ray Barman, Viraj Krishna, Akhil, Sumit Mohanta, Suraj Sindhu Jaiswal, Vikas Singh Sr, Mahipal Yadav, Ramesh Prashad, Dipak Ghosh, Sarasji Mukherjee

Murshidabad Kings

Last year’s runners-up doubled down on all-round depth, making captain Saksham Chaudhary their costliest signing at 8.40 lakh. The squad mixes flexible multi-skilled options with raw youth, as teenage seamer Nuruddin Mondal leads an attack built to defend the kind of totals that carried them to the 2025 final.

Squad: Saksham Chaudhary, Abhishek Kumar Raman, Chandrahas Dash, Aditya Purohit, Aditya Sharma, Subham Chatterjee, Toufik Uddin Mondal, Ayan Bhattacharjee, Rishabh Chaudhary, Nuruddin Mondal, Rohit Kumar Das, Irshad Alam, Giriraj Vyas, Deepanshu, Sayak Jana, Prabin Chhetri, Suvankar Bal

Kolkata Royal Tigers

Last season’s semi-finalists invested in their leader, retaining wicketkeeper-batter Abishek Porel for 10.40 lakh, the second-costliest buy of the auction. Around him sits a versatile bowling attack headed by Sayan Ghosh, the previous edition’s leading wicket-taker, giving the side a clear balance of marquee batting and proven bowling.

Squad: Abishek Porel, Ritwik Roy Chowdhury, Ayush Kumar Singh, Sourav Halder, Ronit Ghosh, Anurag Tiwari, Jayveer Singh, Akash Pandey, Ashutosh Kumar, Sayan Ghosh, Soumyadip Mandal, Prabhat Maurya, MD Kaif, Suraj Singh, Swapnadeep Dey, Arjun Singh, Sanjib Goswami

Shrachi Rarh Tigers

With Wriddhiman Saha mentoring from the sidelines, the Tigers held on to India all-rounder Shahbaz Ahmed for 12.20 lakh, the most expensive buy in the league’s history. He anchors a side rich in all-round options, with rising talent Rahul Prasad among those expected to benefit from Saha’s guidance.

Squad: Shahbaz Ahmed, Sumit Nag, Sumanta Gupta, Gaurav Singh Chauhan, Shuvam Dey Sr, Sukhmeet Singh, Rohit Kumar, Rahul Prasad, Saurabh Kumar Singh, Raju Halder, Dipanjan Mukherjee, Dilshad Khan, Deepak Kumar, Ayush Roy, Abhiprai Biswas, Tinku Kumar, Mayank Jha

Rashmi Medinipur Wizards

A neatly balanced unit blending experience and promise. Veteran captain Anustup Majumdar proved a 2 lakh bargain, and he leads a batting group featuring the exciting opening pair of Vivek Singh and Abhishek Das, alongside Priyanshu Gaurav Srivastava, the competition’s leading run-scorer from the 2024 season.

Squad: Anustup Majumdar, Debopratim Halder, Vivek Singh, Abhishek Das, Priyanshu Gaurav Srivastava, Agniswar Das, Sayed Irfan Aftab, Aamir Gani, Subham Sarkar, Vivek Kumar Singh, Shreyan Chakraborty, Vikas Singh, Siddharth Ghosh, Surojit Jadav, Sudhangshu Pandey, Sanjay Balmiki, Aishik Patel

Servotech Siliguri Strikers

A bowling-heavy outfit fronted by India pacer Mohammad Shami at 5.2 lakh, partnered with Ishan Porel for a genuine new-ball threat. Karan Lal, last season’s leading run-scorer, anchors the batting. Shami’s availability remains subject to international duty, a caveat the Strikers will track closely through the season.

Squad: Mohammad Shami, Snehashish Saha, Karan Lal, Sudip Chatterjee, Pramod Chandila, Abhishek Bose, Geet Puri, Aditya Singh, Vishal Bhati, Kaushik Maity, Shivam Bharati, Ishan Porel, Aakash Das, Shashi Shankar Singh, Sachin Yadav, Badal Singh Balyan

Novus Royals Purulia

The league’s newcomers had no Right to Match card and built their squad entirely from scratch. They made Sudip Gharami their marquee lead at 9.40 lakh, added Yuvraj Keswani for 8.60 lakh, and backed youth by signing Under-19 talent Ravi Kumar for 7.80 lakh in their inaugural campaign.

Squad: Sudip Gharami, Yuvraj Keswani, Ankur Paul, Sayan Shekhar Mandal, Ram Sen, Priyam Sarkar, Pradipta Pramanik, Harsh Dev Gautam, Ravi Kumar, Rohit, Pritam Chakraborty, Aakash Singh, Tanmoy Pramanick, Mithilesh Das, Purab Jain, Lokesh, Gourab Dutta

What the Full Eight-Squad Picture Tells Us About the League 

Taken together, the eight squads capture exactly what the league is built for. India internationals and seasoned domestic names like Shami, Shahbaz Ahmed, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Abishek Porel and Mukesh Kumar sit at the top of most rosters, but the depth behind them is filled with Bengal’s emerging batters, all-rounders and teenage prospects unearthed through the new auction. 

The retentions give the established sides continuity, while Novus Royals Purulia’s build-from-scratch approach shows how quickly a new franchise can become competitive. For the state’s young cricketers, sharing a dressing room with this calibre of player is the real prize of the season.