The much-awaited IPL 2026 schedule is finally out! The biggest T20 league returns for its 19th edition in March 2026.
So, here’s all you need to know about the IPL 2026 season.
When does the IPL 2026 start?
The IPL 2026 begins on Saturday, March 11. Defending champions Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) will take on Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in the Southern Derby in the season opener in Bengaluru. The match starts at 7:30 PM IST.
How many matches will be played?
The season will see a total of 74 matches, including the playoffs. There are 70 games in the league stage, with the other four making the playoffs.
What’s the format of the IPL 2026?
Each team will play 14 matches in the league stage. They will face five teams twice and play the other four teams once each.
After the league stage, the top four sides will advance to the playoffs. The top two teams will square off in Qualifier 1, while the other two teams will lock horns in the Eliminator.
The loser of Qualifier 1 and the winner of the Eliminator will then meet in Qualifier 2, with the winner advancing to the final. They will face the Qualifier 1 winner in the title clash.
Is there a home-away format? And which venues will host the matches?
Yes, teams will play on a home-away basis. Each team will play seven matches at home and seven away.
Seven teams have one home base, while three will spread their home games across two venues. RCB, Punjab Kings and Rajasthan Royals will play home matches at two venues each. In all, 13 venues will host matches this season.
Here are the venues for the IPL 2026 season:
Delhi Capitals: Arun Jaitely Stadium, Delhi (Seven matches)
Lucknow Super Giants: Ekana Cricket Stadium, Lucknow (seven matches)
Kolkata Knight Riders: Eden Gardens, Kolkata (seven matches)
Royal Challengers Bengaluru: M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru (five matches) & Shaheed Veer Narayan Singh International Cricket Stadium, New Raipur (two matches)
Chennai Super Kings: MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai (seven matches)
Punjab Kings: Maharaja Yadavindra Singh International Cricket Stadium, New Chandigarh (four matches) & Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium, Dharamsala (three matches)
Gujarat Titans: Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad (seven matches)
Sunrisers Hyderabad: Rajiv Gandhi Stadium, Hyderabad (seven matches)
Rajasthan Royals: Sawai Mansingh Stadium, Jaipur (four matches) & Barsapara Cricket Stadium, Guwahati (three matches)
Mumbai Indians: Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai (seven matches)
Ongoing & Upcoming Series Schedule:
India’s Domestic Cricket Schedule 2025-26
New Zealand Schedule for 2025-26 Home Season
New Zealand vs South Africa T20I Series 2026 Schedule
Afghanistan vs Sri Lanka 2026 Series Schedule
World Test Championship (WTC) 2025-27 Full Schedule
India’s T20 World Cup 2026 Schedule
ICC T20 World Cup 2026: Schedule
India Women’s Tour of Australia 2026: Schedule
Indian Men’s Cricket Team 2026 Schedule
Indian Women’s Cricket Team 2026 Schedule
Australia Men’s Cricket Team 2026 Schedule
England Men’s Cricket Team 2026 Schedule
England 2026 Home Season Schedule
South Africa Men’s Cricket Team 2026 Schedule
South Africa 2026-27 Home Season Schedule
New Zealand Men’s Cricket Team 2026 Schedule
Pakistan Men’s Cricket Team 2026 Schedule
India’s ODI Schedule Till 2027 Cricket World Cup
Australia’s ODI Schedule Till 2027 Cricket World Cup
South Africa’s ODI Schedule Till 2027 Cricket World Cup
England’s ODI Schedule Till 2027 Cricket World Cup
What’s the IPL 2026 schedule?
Here’s the schedule announced for the first 20 matches. The rest of the schedule is expected to be announced soon.
IPL 2026 Schedule
| Date | Match | Venue | Time (IST) |
|---|---|---|---|
| March 28 | Royal Challengers Bengaluru vs Sunrisers Hyderabad | Bengaluru | 7:30 PM |
| March 29 | Mumbai Indians vs Kolkata Knight Riders | Mumbai | 7:30 PM |
| March 30 | Rajasthan Royals vs Chennai Super Kings | Guwahati | 7:30 PM |
| March 31 | Punjab Kings vs Gujarat Titans | Mullanpur | 7:30 PM |
| April 1 | Lucknow Super Giants vs Delhi Capitals | Lucknow | 7:30 PM |
| April 2 | Kolkata Knight Riders vs Sunrisers Hyderabad | Kolkata | 7:30 PM |
| April 3 | Chennai Super Kings vs Punjab Kings | Chennai | 7:30 PM |
| April 4 | Delhi Capitals vs Mumbai Indians | Delhi | 3:30 PM |
| April 4 | Gujarat Titans vs Rajasthan Royals | Ahmedabad | 7:30 PM |
| April 5 | Sunrisers Hyderabad vs Lucknow Super Giants | Hyderabad | 3:30 PM |
| April 5 | Royal Challengers Bengaluru vs Chennai Super Kings | Bengaluru | 7:30 PM |
| April 6 | Kolkata Knight Riders vs Punjab Kings | Kolkata | 7:30 PM |
| April 7 | Rajasthan Royals vs Mumbai Indians | Guwahati | 7:30 PM |
| April 8 | Delhi Capitals vs Gujarat Titans | Delhi | 7:30 PM |
| April 9 | Kolkata Knight Riders vs Lucknow Super Giants | Kolkata | 7:30 PM |
| April 10 | Rajasthan Royals vs Royal Challengers Bengaluru | Guwahati | 7:30 PM |
| April 11 | Punjab Kings vs Sunrisers Hyderabad | Mullanpur | 3:30 PM |
| April 11 | Chennai Super Kings vs Delhi Capitals | Chennai | 7:30 PM |
| April 12 | Lucknow Super Giants vs Gujarat Titans | Lucknow | 3:30 PM |
| April 12 | Mumbai Indians vs Royal Challengers Bengaluru | Mumbai | 7:30 PM |
How do the squads stack up?
Here’s a look at all squads lined up for the IPL 2026 season.
Chennai Super Kings
MS Dhoni, Anshul Kamboj, Gurjapneet Singh, Jamie Overton, Mukesh Choudhary, Nathan Ellis, Noor Ahmad, Ramakrishna Ghosh, Sanju Samson, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shivam Dube, Shreyas Gopal, Syed Khaleel Ahmed, Ayush Mhatre, Dewald Brevis, Urvil Patel, Kartik Sharma, Prashant Veer, Rahul Chahar, Matt Henry, Akeal Hosein, Matthew Short, Zak Foulkes, Sarfaraz Khan, Aman Khan.
Delhi Capitals
Abhishek Porel, Ajay Mandal, Ashutosh Sharma, Axar Patel, Dushmantha Chameera, Karun Nair, KL Rahul, Kuldeep Yadav, Madhav Tiwari, Mitchell Starc, Mukesh Kumar, Nitish Rana, Sameer Rizvi, T. Natarajan, Tripurana Vijay, Tristan Stubbs, Vipraj Nigam, Auqib Dar, Pathum Nissanka, Kyle Jamieson, Lungi Ngidi, Ben Duckett, David Miller, Prithvi Shaw, Sahil Parakh.
Gujarat Titans
Anuj Rawat, Glenn Phillips, Gurnoor Singh Brar, Ishant Sharma, Jayant Yadav, Jos Buttler, Kagiso Rabada, Kumar Kushagra, Manav Suthar, Mohammad Siraj, Mohd. Arshad Khan, Nishant Sindhu, Prasidh Krishna, R. Sai Kishore, Rahul Tewatia, Rashid Khan, Sai Sudharsan, Shahrukh Khan, Shubman Gill, Washington Sundar, Jason Holder, Tom Banton, Ashok Sharma, Luke Wood, Prithviraj Yarra.
Kolkata Knight Riders
Ajinkya Rahane, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Anukul Roy, Harshit Rana, Manish Pandey, Ramandeep Singh, Rinku Singh, Rovman Powell, Sunil Narine, Umran Malik, Vaibhav Arora, Varun Chakaravarthy, Cameron Green, Matheesha Pathirana, Tejasvi Singh, Rachin Ravindra, Finn Allen, Tim Seifert, Akash Deep, Rahul Tripathi, Daksh Kamra, Sarthak Ranjan, Prashant Solanki, Kartik Tyagi.
Lucknow Super Giants
Abdul Samad, Aiden Markram, Akash Singh, Arjun Tendulkar, Arshin Kulkarni, Avesh Khan, Ayush Badoni, Digvesh Rathi, Himmat Singh, Manimaran Siddharth, Matthew Breetzke, Mayank Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Mitchell Marsh, Mohsin Khan, Nicholas Pooran, Prince Yadav, Rishabh Pant, Shahbaz Ahmed, Josh Inglis, Mukul Choudhary, Akshat Raghuwanshi, Anrich Nortje, Wanindu Hasaranga, Naman Tiwari.
Mumbai Indians
Allah Ghazanfar, Ashwani Kumar, Corbin Bosch, Deepak Chahar, Hardik Pandya, Jasprit Bumrah, Mayank Markande, Mitchell Santner, Naman Dhir, Raghu Sharma, Raj Angad Bawa, Robin Minz, Rohit Sharma, Ryan Rickelton*, Shardul Thakur, Sherfane Rutherford, Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Verma, Trent Boult, Will Jacks, Quinton de Kock, Mayank Rawat, Atharva Ankolekar, Mohammad Izhar, Danish Malewar.
Punjab Kings
Arshdeep Singh, Azmatullah Omarzai, Harnoor Pannu, Harpreet Brar, Lockie Ferguson, Marco Jansen, Marcus Stoinis, Mitch Owen, Musheer Khan, Nehal Wadhera, Prabhsimran Singh, Priyansh Arya, Pyla Avinash, Shashank Singh, Shreyas Iyer, Suryansh Shedge, Vishnu Vinod, Vyshak Vijaykumar, Xavier Bartlett, Yash Thakur, Yuzvendra Chahal, Ben Dwarshuis, Cooper Connolly, Vishal Nishad, Pravin Dubey.
Rajasthan Royals
Dhruv Jurel, Donovan Ferreira, Jofra Archer, Kwena Maphaka, Lhuan-Dre Pretorious, Nandre Burger, Ravindra Jadeja, Riyan Parag, Sam Curran, Sandeep Sharma, Shimron Hetmyer, Shubham Dubey, Tushar Deshpande, Vaibhav Suryavanshi, Yashaswi Jaiswal, Yudhvir Charak, Ravi Bishnoi, Adam Milne, Ravi Singh, Sushant Mishra, Kuldeep Sen, Brijesh Sharma, Aman Rao Perala, Vignesh Puthur, Yash Raj Punja.
Royal Challengers Bengaluru
Abhinandan Singh, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Devdutt Padikkal, Jacob Bethell, Jitesh Sharma, Josh Hazlewood, Krunal Pandya, Nuwan Thushara, Phil Salt, Rajat Patidar, Rasikh Dar, Romario Shepherd, Suyash Sharma, Swapnil Singh, Tim David, Virat Kohli, Yash Dayal, Venkatesh Iyer, Mangesh Yadav, Jordan Cox, Kanishk Chouhan, Vihaan Malhotra, Vicky Ostwal, Satvik Deswal.
Sunrisers Hyderabad
Abhishek Sharma, Aniket Verma, Brydon Carse, Eshan Malinga, Harsh Dubey, Harshal Patel, Heinrich Klaasen, Ishan Kishan, Jaydev Unadkat, Kamindu Mendis, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Pat Cummins, Smaran Ravichandaran, Travis Head, Zeeshan Ansari, Liam Livingstone, Jack Edwards, Salil Arora, Shivam Mavi, Krains Fuletra, Praful Hinge, Amit Kumar, Onkar Tarmale, Sakib Hussain, Shivang Kumar.
Where to watch the IPL 2026?
As always, Star Sports will broadcast all the IPL action live on TV in India. The matches will also be available for live streaming on JioHotstar.
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