The 18th season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) will begin on Saturday, March 22. As ususal, the opening and final match will be held at the home ground of the previous champions, Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), at Eden Gardens. In the first match, KKR will face Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB). According to a report by Cricbuzz, the complete schedule of the IPL may be released in 1 or 2 days. The franchises 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 and the final at Eden Gardens in Kolkata. The runner-up of the 17th season, Sunrisers Hyderabad, will also start their campaign at home against Rajasthan Royals (RR) on March 23, with the match starting at 3:30 PM. Both teams also clashed in the qualifier-2 of the previous season. Hyderabad won the match and secured a place in the final. Final on May 25 in Kolkata
In IPL, the opening and final match takes place at the home ground of the defending champion team. This time too, both important matches will be held at Kolkata's Eden Gardens Stadium. The final will be played on May 25. Qualifier-2 will also be held in Kolkata. Meanwhile, Qualifier-1 and the Eliminator will be played at the home ground of the previous runner-up SRH in Hyderabad. RCB will play under the leadership of a new captain
RCB announced their new captain on Thursday. Rajat Patidar from Madhya Pradesh will captain the team in the 18th season. KKR will also play the tournament with a new captain. The previous captain Shreyas Iyer will play for Punjab Kings this season, so KKR will have to choose a new captain. Matches of 10 teams will be held at 12 venues
Matches will be played in Guwahati and Dharamshala in addition to the home grounds of the 10 teams. Guwahati is the second home ground of Rajasthan Royals (RR), where the team will play 2 matches. The team will face Kolkata on March 26 and Chennai on March 30 here. Dharamshala 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 rest of the season's matches will be played here. A total of 74 matches are to be played between the 10 teams in the tournament. Chennai and Mumbai have won the most titles
IPL is India's franchise cricket tournament. It is played every year from March to May in the T-20 format. It started in 2008 with 8 teams. Rajasthan won the title of the first season by defeating Chennai in the final. In 2022, the tournament expanded to 10 teams, and since then, 10 teams have consistently participated. Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Mumbai Indians (MI) have won the most titles with 5 each. Kolkata, with 3 titles, is the third most successful team in the tournament. Delhi, Bangalore, Punjab, and Lucknow have not won any titles so far.Original Article