- विज्ञापन -
New Delhi: The 18th season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) will begin on Saturday, March 22. The opening and final matches will be played at Eden Gardens, the home ground of defending champion Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR). In the first match, KKR will face Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB).
According to Cricbuzz report, the complete schedule of IPL can be released in 1 or 2 days. Franchise teams have been informed about the important matches. Kolkata won the title by defeating Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in the 2024 final. This time 2 playoff matches will be played in Hyderabad.
Hyderabad will also start from its home ground.
Sunrisers Hyderabad, the runner-up of the 17th season, will also start its campaign from its home ground Uppal. They will face Rajasthan Royals on March 23, the match will start at 3.30 pm. Both the teams had also clashed in the qualifier-2 of the last season. Hyderabad had won the match and made it to the finals.
Final in Kolkata on 25 May
In IPL, the opening and final matches are played on the home ground of the defending champion team. This time too, both the important matches will be played at Kolkata’s Eden Gardens Stadium. The final will be played on 25 May. Qualifier-2 will also be played in Kolkata. Qualifier-1 and Eliminator will be played in Hyderabad, the home ground of previous runner-up SRH.
RCB will play under the leadership of a new captain .
RCB announced its new captain on Thursday. Madhya Pradesh’s Rajat Patidar will captain the team in the 18th season. KKR will also play the tournament with a new captain. Previous captain Shreyas Iyer will play for Punjab Kings this season, so KKR will have to choose a new captain.
Matches between 10 teams will be played at 12 venues.
Apart from the home grounds of the 10 teams, matches will also be played in Guwahati and Dharamsala. Guwahati is the second home ground of Rajasthan Royals (RR), the team will play 2 matches here. The team will face Kolkata on March 26 and Chennai on March 30 here. Dharamsala is the second home ground of Punjab Kings (PBKS). The team will play 3 matches here.
The remaining home grounds of the 10 teams are Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru, Lucknow, Mullanpur, Delhi, Jaipur, Kolkata and Hyderabad. The remaining matches of the season will be played here. A total of 74 matches are to be played between the 10 teams in the tournament.
