Women's T20 Challenge

The idea for a women's version of the Indian Premier League was suggested after the 2017 Women's Cricket World Cup, where the India women's national cricket team finished second. The tournament was first introduced in 2018, as a single match held in Mumbai prior to one of the men's matches. The match featured teams named IPL Trailblazers and IPL Supernovas. In 2019, the Women's T20 Challenge was expanded to a three team tournament instead of a one-off match, with a new team called IPL Velocity competing alongside the IPL Trailblazers and IPL Supernovas, in a round-robin format with the top two teams progressing to the final. The 2020 event was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and held in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, alongside the rearranged men's IPL.

In November 2020, Board of Control for Cricket in India president Sourav Ganguly suggested an expansion of the Women's T20 Challenge to 7 or 8 teams in 2022. There were suggestions of adding a fourth team for the 2021 season, but this was decided against due to the ongoing issues caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The 2021 event was postponed along with the men's IPL, with no indication of a date for the women's event being played. It was not held at the same time as the rearranged men's event, as the dates clashed with India women's tour of Australia. In March 2022, the BCCI announced plans to start a women's IPL by 2023, with five or six teams in the inaugural edition. The 2022 event took place in May 2022, to coincide with the playoffs of the men's IPL.

In March 2022, BCCI announced a new franchise-based annual T20 tournament starting in 2023 to replace the Women's T20 Challenge, which was later named the Women's Premier League.