The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced the dates for the upcoming Indian Premier League (IPL) season, and defending champions Gujarat Titans (GT) will take on Chennai Super Kings (CSK) at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on March 31. The final will be held on May 28, also in Ahmedabad.
This season will have 70 matches, with all sides playing in seven home and seven away matches this season. These matches will be hosted across 12 venues: Ahmedabad, Mohali, Lucknow, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Kolkata, Jaipur, Mumbai, Guwahati and Dharamsala.
Five-time champions Mumbai Indians (MI) kick off their campaign against the Royal Challengers Bangalore at the Chinnaswamy Stadium on April 2.
The 1000th match of the IPL will be played between CSK and MI on May 6.
The league will include 18 double-headers and will wrap up by May 21. Last season, Hardik Pandya’s all-round display guided the Gujarat Titans to the IPL title in their first-ever season with a seven-wicket victory over the Rajasthan Royals (RR) in the final.
The Gujarat skipper took three wickets for 17 runs, including the important scalp of Jos Buttler for 39 to restrict Royals to 130 for 9 and then hit 34 off 30 balls.
The 10 teams will be divided into two groups. Group A will have MI, RR, Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), Delhi Capitals (DC) and Lucknow Super Giants (LSG). Group B will have CSK, Punjab Kings, SRH, RCB and GT.
The inaugural edition of the Women's Premier League (WPL) is set to take place from March 4 to 26, with the IPL starting four days later.
