The 17th edition of the Indian Premier League gets underway on March 22 with the Chennai Super Kings taking on the Royal Challengers Bangalore in the opening match. The match will take place at the iconic MA Chidambaram Stadium.
The competition features 10 teams: Chennai Super Kings, Delhi Capitals, Gujarat Titans, Kolkata Knight Riders, Lucknow Super Giants, Mumbai Indians, Punjab Kings, Rajasthan Royals, Royal Challengers Bangalore, and Sunrisers Hyderabad.
The teams will compete in a double round-robin format, playing each other twice in the competition. The top two teams will advance to the Qualifier, while the 3rd and 4th ranked teams will compete in the Eliminator match. The winner of the first Qualifier will secure a direct spot in the Final, while the loser of the First Qualifier will face the winner of the Eliminator to earn a place in the Finals.
Captains of each team
1. Chennai Super Kings- MS Dhoni
2. Mumbai Indians - Hardik Pandya
3. Gujarat Titans- Shubman Gill
4. Kolkata Knight Riders - Shreyas Iyer
5. Lucknow Super Giants - KL Rahul
6. Punjab Kings - Shikhar Dhawan
7. Sunrisers Hyderabad - Pat Cummins
8. Delhi Capitals - Rishabh Pant
9. Rajasthan Royals- Sanju Samson
10. Royal Challengers Bangalore - Faf du Plessis
Selected venues for the mega-event
1. MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai – Chennai Super Kings
2. Arun Jaitley Stadium, New Delhi – Delhi Capitals
3. Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad – Gujarat Titans
4. M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru – Royal Challengers Bangalore
5. Eden Gardens, Kolkata – Kolkata Knight Riders
6. BRSABV Ekana Stadium, Lucknow – Lucknow Super Giants
7. Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai – Mumbai Indians
8. Maharaja Yadavindra Singh International Cricket Stadium, Punjab – Punjab Kings
9. Sawai Mansingh Stadium, Jaipur – Rajasthan Royals
10. Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Hyderabad – Sunrisers Hyderabad
11. Dr YS Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium, Visakhapatnam
12. HPCA Stadium, Dharamsala, Himachal Pradesh
This season's big signings
Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc both earned substantial amounts for their participation in the Indian Premier League. Cummins was bought by Sunrisers Hyderabad for 2.46 million dollars, while Starc was purchased by Kolkata Knight Riders for 2.98 million dollars.
Title holder
Chennai Super Kings are the current champions of the tournament, having won their fifth title by defeating Gujarat Giants in a rain-curtailed final during the 2023 season. They aim to add more silverware to their collection this season.
Last season's top scorer
Shubman Gill was the top run-scorer of IPL 2023, scoring 890 runs at an average of 59.33. His strike rate was 157.8.
Last season's top wicket-taker
Mohammed Shami was the leading wicket-taker of IPL 2023, taking 28 wickets at an average of 18.64.
Examining the squads
Chennai Super Kings:
MS Dhoni (c), Moeen Ali, Deepak Chahar, Tushar Deshpande, Shivam Dube, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Rajvardhan Hangargekar, Ravindra Jadeja, Ajay Mandal, Mukesh Choudhary, Ajinkya Rahane, Shaik Rasheed, Mitchell Santner, Simarjeet Singh, Nishant Sindhu, Prashant Solanki, Maheesh Theekshana, Rachin Ravindra, Shardul Thakur, Daryl Mitchell, Sameer Rizvi, Mustafizur Rahman, Avanish Rao Aravelly. Players injured/withdrawn: Devon Conway, Matheesha Pathirana.
Mumbai Indians:
Hardik Pandya (c), Rohit Sharma, Dewald Brevis, Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan, N. Tilak Varma, Tim David, Vishnu Vinod, Arjun Tendulkar, Shams Mulani, Nehal Wadhera, Jasprit Bumrah, Kumar Kartikeya, Piyush Chawla, Akash Madhwal, Luke Wood, Romario Shepherd, Gerald Coetzee, Shreyas Gopal, Nuwan Thushara, Naman Dhir, Anshul Kamboj, Mohammad Nabi, Shivalik Sharma. Players injured/withdrawn: Jason Behrendorff, Dilshan Madushanka.
Royal Challengers Bangalore:
Faf du Plessis (c), Glenn Maxwell, Virat Kohli, Rajat Patidar, Anuj Rawat, Dinesh Karthik, Suyash Prabhudessai, Will Jacks, Mahipal Lomror, Karn Sharma, Manoj Bhandage, Mayank Dagar, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Akash Deep, Mohammed Siraj, Reece Topley, Himanshu Sharma, Rajan Kumar, Cameron Green, Alzarri Joseph, Yash Dayal, Tom Curran, Lockie Ferguson, Swapnil Singh, Saurav Chauhan.
Kolkata Knight Riders:
Shreyas Iyer (c), Nitish Rana, Rinku Singh, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Phil Salt, Sunil Narine, Suyash Sharma, Anukul Roy, Andre Russell, Venkatesh Iyer, Harshit Rana, Vaibhav Arora, Varun Chakaravarthy, KS Bharat, Chetan Sakariya, Mitchell Starc, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Ramandeep Singh, Sherfane Rutherford, Manish Pandey, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Dushmantha Chameera, Sakib Hussain. Players injured/withdrawn: Jason Roy, Gus Atkinson.
Gujarat Titans:
Shubman Gill (c), David Miller, Matthew Wade, Wriddhiman Saha, Kane Williamson, Abhinav Manohar, B. Sai Sudharsan, Darshan Nalkande, Vijay Shankar, Jayant Yadav, Rahul Tewatia, Noor Ahmad, Sai Kishore, Rashid Khan, Joshua Little, Mohit Sharma, Azmatullah Omarzai, Umesh Yadav, Shahrukh Khan, Sushant Mishra, Kartik Tyagi, Manav Suthar, Spencer Johnson. Players injured/withdrawn: Mohammed Shami, Robin Minz.
Lucknow Super Giants:
KL Rahul (c), Quinton de Kock, Nicholas Pooran, Ayush Badoni, Kyle Mayers, Marcus Stoinis, Deepak Hooda, Devdutt Padikkal, Ravi Bishnoi, Naveen-ul-Haq, Krunal Pandya, Yudhvir Singh, Prerak Mankad, Yash Thakur, Amit Mishra, Shamar Joseph, Mayank Yadav, Mohsin Khan, K. Gowtham, Shivam Mavi, Arshin Kulkarni, M. Siddharth, Ashton Turner, David Willey, Mohd. Arshad Khan. Players injured/withdrawn: Mark Wood.
Rajasthan Royals:
Sanju Samson (c), Jos Buttler, Shimron Hetmyer, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Dhruv Jurel, Riyan Parag, Donovan Ferreira, Kunal Rathore, Ravichandran Ashwin, Kuldeep Sen, Navdeep Saini, Sandeep Sharma, Trent Boult, Yuzvendra Chahal, Adam Zampa, Avesh Khan, Rovman Powell, Shubham Dubey, Tom Kohler-Cadmore, Abid Mushtaq, Nandre Burger. Players injured/withdrawn: Prasidh Krishna.
Delhi Capitals:
Rishabh Pant (c), Pravin Dubey, David Warner, Vicky Ostwal, Prithvi Shaw, Anrich Nortje, Abishek Porel, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Lalit Yadav, Khaleel Ahmed, Mitchell Marsh, Ishant Sharma, Yash Dhull, Mukesh Kumar, Tristan Stubbs, Ricky Bhui, Kumar Kushagra, Rasikh Dar, Jhye Richardson, Sumit Kumar, Shai Hope, Swastik Chhikara. Players injured/withdrawn: Harry Brook, Lungi Ngidi.
Punjab Kings:
Shikhar Dhawan (c), Matthew Short, Prabhsimran Singh, Jitesh Sharma, Sikandar Raza, Rishi Dhawan, Liam Livingstone, Atharva Taide, Arshdeep Singh, Nathan Ellis, Sam Curran, Kagiso Rabada, Harpreet Brar, Rahul Chahar, Harpreet Bhatia, Vidwath Kaverappa, Shivam Singh, Harshal Patel, Chris Woakes, Ashutosh Sharma, Vishwanath Pratap Singh, Shashank Singh, Tanay Thyagarajann, Prince Choudhary, Rilee Rossouw.
Sunrisers Hyderabad:
Abdul Samad, Abhishek Sharma, Aiden Markram (c), Marco Jansen, Rahul Tripathi, Washington Sundar, Glenn Phillips, Sanvir Singh, Heinrich Klaasen, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mayank Agarwal, T. Natarajan, Anmolpreet Singh, Mayank Markande, Upendra Singh Yadav, Umran Malik, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Shahbaz Ahmed , Travis Head, Wanindu Hasaranga, Pat Cummins, Jaydev Unadkat, Akash Singh, Jhathavedh Subramanyan.
The schedule for the first 21 matches has been released, and the dates for the remaining games will be announced soon. The organizers are taking into account the upcoming national elections in India, which begin on April 19.
Schedule
Friday, March 22
Chennai Super Kings v Royal Challengers Bangalore (Chennai, 6.30 pm)
Saturday, March 23
Punjab Kings v Delhi Capitals (Mohali, 2.30 pm)
Kolkata Knight Riders v Sunrisers Hyderabad (Kolkata, 6.30 pm)
Sunday, March 24
Rajasthan Royals v Lucknow Super Giants (Jaipur, 2.30pm).
Gujarat Giants vs Mumbai Indians (Ahmedabad, 6:30pm)
Monday, March 25
Royal Challengers Bangalore v Punjab Kings (Bengaluru, 6.30pm)
Tuesday, March 26
Chennai Super Kings v Gujarat Titans (Chennai, 6.30pm)
Wednesday, March 27
Sunrisers Hyderabad v Mumbai Indians (Hyderabad, 6.30pm)
Thursday, March 28
Rajasthan Royals v Delhi Capitals (Jaipur, 6.30pm)
Friday, March 29
Royal Challengers Bangalore v Kolkata Knight Riders (Bengaluru, 6.30pm)
Saturday, March 30
Lucknow Super Giants v Punjab Kings (Lucknow, 6.30pm)
Sunday, March 31
Gujarat Titans v Sunrisers Hyderabad (Ahmedabad, 2.30pm)
Delhi Capitals v Chennai Super Kings (Vizag, 6.30pm)
Monday, April 1
Mumbai Indians v Rajasthan Royals (Mumbai, 6.30pm
Tuesday, April 2
Royal Challengers Bangalore v Lucknow Super Giants (Bengaluru, 6.30pm)
Wednesday, April 3
Delhi Capitals v Kolkata Knight Riders (Vizag, 6.30pm)
Thursday, April 4
Gujarat Titans v Punjab Kings (Ahmedabad, 6.30pm)
Friday, April 5
Sunrisers Hyderabad v Chennai Super Kings (Hyderabad, 6.30pm)
Saturday, April 6
Rajasthan Royals v Royal Challengers Bangalore (Jaipur, 6.30pm)
Sunday, April 7
Mumbai Indians v Delhi Capitals (Mumbai, 2.30pm)
Lucknow Super Giants v Gujarat Titans (Lucknow, 6.30pm)
Remaining Schedule - TBA