The stage is set for the 14th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL), which returns to India again, less than six months after the previous edition ended in the UAE, where Mumbai Indians (MI) clinched a record fifth title by beating Delhi Capitals (DC). The latest season is set to begin in Chennai with a match between Mumbai Indians and Royal Challengers Bangalore on 9 April, with the final to be played in Ahmedabad on 30 May. The previous edition was held behind closed doors owing to the Covid-19 pandemic, and it is going to continue, at least in the initial phase.
The IPL Governing Council said in a statement that a call on allowing spectators inside stadiums will be taken at a later stage. Although all teams face each other twice in the league stage, the IPL is doing away with home and away games for this season. Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru, Ahmedabad, New Delhi and Kolkata will host games throughout the tournament, with Ahmedabad also hosting the playoffs and final. All teams will play at four of the six venues with 11 double headers to be held. During the league stage, Chennai, Mumbai, Kolkata and Bengaluru will host 10 games with Ahmedabad and New Delhi organising eight games each.
Match timings:
The night matches begin at 7.30 PM IST, while the day matches will have an afternoon start at 3.30 PM IST. There will be a total of 11 double-headers. The matches of the afternoon slots are: 18 April: RCB vs KKR at Chennai; 21 April: PBKS vs SRH at Chennai; 25 April: CSK vs RCB at Mumbai; 29 April: MI vs RR at New Delhi; 2 May: RR vs SRH at New Delhi; 8 May: KKR vs DC at Ahmedabad; 9 May: CSK vs PBKS at Bengaluru; 13 May: MI vs PBKS at Bengaluru; 16 May: RR vs RCB at Kolkata; 21 May: KKR vs SRH at Bengaluru; 23 May: MI vs DC at Kolkata;
Telecast of matches
The matches will be telecast on the Star Sports network. The matches can also be watched on online platform Disney+ Hostar. Firstpost will also be live-blogging all the matches.
Teams and list of players:
Mumbai Indians: Rohit Sharma (Captain), Quinton de Kock (WK), Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan (WK), Chris Lynn, Anmolpreet Singh, Saurabh Tiwary, Aditya Tare, Kieron Pollard, Hardik Pandya, Krunal Pandya, Anukul Roy, Jasprit Bumrah, Trent Boult, Rahul Chahar, Jayant Yadav, Dhawal Kulkarni, Mohsin Khan, Adam Milne, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Piyush Chawla, James Neesham, Yudhvir Charak, Marco Jansen, Arjun Tendulkar.
Delhi Capitals: Shikhar Dhawan, Prithvi Shaw, Ajinkya Rahane, Rishabh Pant (Captain, Shreyas Iyer, Axar Patel, Amit Mishra, Ishant Sharma, R Ashwin, Lalit Yadav, Harshal Patel, Avesh Khan, Pravin Dubey, Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortje, Marcus Stoinis, Shimron Hetmyer, Chris Woakes, Daniel Sams, Steve Smith, Umesh Yadav, Ripal Patel, Vishnu Vinod, Lukman Meriwala, M Siddharth, Tom Curran, Sam Billings
Royal Challengers Bangalore: Virat Kohli (Captain), AB de Villiers, Yuzvendra Chahal, Devdutt Padikkal, Navdeep Saini, Washington Sundar, Mohammed Siraj, Kane Richardson, Adam Zampa, Josh Philippe, Shahbaz Ahmed, Pavan Deshpande, Kyle Jamieson, Glenn Maxwell, Dan Christian, Sachin Baby, Rajat Patidar, Mohammed Azharuddeen, Suyash Prabhudesai, KS Bharat
Chennai Super Kings: MS Dhoni (C and WK), Suresh Raina, Ambati Rayudu, N Jagadeesan, Faf Du Plessis, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Sam Curran, Ravi Jadeja, Dwayne Bravo, Mitchell Santner, Josh Hazlewood, Shardul Thakur, Karn Sharma, KM Asif, Imran Tahir, R. Sai Kishore, Deepak Chahar, Lungi Ngidi, Moeen Ali, Krishnappa Gowtham, Harisankar Reddy, Bhagvath Varma and Cheteshwar Pujara
Sunrisers Hyderabad: David Warner (c), Kane Williamson, Jonny Bairstow (wk), Manish Pandey, Sreevats Goswami (wk), Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Priyam Garg, Vijay Shankar, Abhishek Sharma, Abdul Samad, Virat Singh, Mitchell Marsh, Jason Holder, Mohammad Nabi, Rashid Khan, Shahbaz Nadeem, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, T. Natarajan, Sandeep Sharma, Khaleel Ahmed, Siddarth Kaul, Basil Thampi, Jagadeesha Suchith, Kedar Jadhav, Mujeeb-ur-Rahman.
Punjab Kings: KL Rahul (c&wk), Mayank Agarwal, Chris Gayle, Mandeep Singh, Prabsimran Singh, Nicholas Pooran (wk), Sarfaraz Khan, Deepak Hooda, Murugan Ashwin, Ravi Bishnoi, Harpreet Brar, Mohammed Shami, Arshdeep Singh, Ishan Porel, Darshan Nalkande, Chris Jordan, Dawid Malan, Jhye Richardson, Shahrukh Khan, Riley Meredith, Moises Henriques, Jalaj Saxena, Utkarsh Singh, Fabian Allen , Saurabh Kumar.
Kolkata Knight Riders: Shubman Gill, Nitish Rana, Tim Seifert (wk), Rahul Tripathi, Rinku Singh, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Eoin Morgan (c), Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Varun CV, Kuldeep Yadav, Pat Cummins, Lockie Ferguson, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Shivam Mavi, Sandeep Warrier, Prasidh Krishna, Shakib Al Hasan, Sheldon Jackson, Vaibhav Arora, Karun Nair, Harbhajan Singh, Ben Cutting, Venkatesh Iyer, Pawan Negi.
Rajasthan Royals: Sanju Samson (c), Ben Stokes, Jofra Archer, Jos Buttler, Riyan Parag, Shreyas Gopal, Rahul Tewatia, Mahipal Lomor, Kartik Tyagi, Andrew Tye, Jaydev Unadkat, Mayank Markande, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Anuj Rawat, David Miller, Manan Vohra, Chris Morris, Mustafizur Rahman, Shivam Dube, KC Cariappa, Chetan Sakariya, Liam Livingstone, Kuldip Yadav, Akash Singh.
