The stage is set for the 14tth 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.
IPL Trophy. Image: Sportzpics for BCCI
The IPL Governing Council said in a statement that a call on allowing spectators inside stadiums will be taken at a later stage of the tournament.
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.
The IPL also issued a list of Standard operating Procedures (SoP) on 20 March, which stated that the cricketers who took part in the India-England limited-overs series were eligible for a bubble-to-bubble transfer instead of undergoing quarantine, while there is no mandatory vaccination for any of the players or staff.
Here’s all you need to know about the tournament ahead of the opener on 9 April:
Which teams are participating in IPL 2021?
The following eight franchises are part of the IPL 2021 — Chennai Super Kings (CSK), Delhi Capitals (DC), Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), Punjab Kings (PBKS), Mumbai Indians (MI), Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), Rajasthan Royals (RR) and Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH).
What is the format of IPL 2021?
As always, all teams play each other twice in the league stage, but like the previous year, games won’t be played on a home and away basis. The top four teams at the end of the league stage will qualify for the playoffs. The top two teams will play each other in the first playoff match, the winner would qualify for the final while the loser would get another opportunity to reach the summit clash. They would play the winner of the Eliminator, which will be played between the third and fourth teams in the points table, for a place in the final.
When and where is the 2021 edition of the IPL taking place?
This year, the IPL returns to India. Matches will be held at six venues across the country – Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru, Kolkata, New Delhi and Ahmedabad. Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru and Kolkata will host 10 matches each during the league stage, with Delhi and Ahmedabad playing hosts to eight games each. All the playoffs and final will be played in Ahmedabad. Here are the venues for IPL 2021:
Mumbai: Wankhede Stadium
Chennai: MA Chidambaram Stadium
Bengaluru: M Chinnaswamy Stadium
Kolkata: Eden Gardens
New Delhi: Arun Jaitley Stadium
Ahmedabad: Narendra Modi Stadium
What are the match timings for upcoming IPL?
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
Click here to view the complete schedule of IPL 2021.
Where can I watch, live stream IPL matches in India?
The IPL T20 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.
Who are the captains of the participating IPL teams?
The following are the captains of eight IPL franchises.
CSK: MS Dhoni
DC: Rishabh Pant
KKR: Eoin Morgan
PBKS: KL Rahul
MI: Rohit Sharma
RCB: Virat Kohli
RR: Sanju Samson
SRH: David Warner
Who are the past winners of IPL?
Here's a look at the last 13 IPL winners as well as runners-up:
2008: RR (CSK runners-up)
2009: Deccan Chargers (RCB runners-up)
2010: CSK (MI runners-up)
2011: CSK (RCB runners-up)
2012: KKR (CSK runners-up)
2013: MI (CSK runners-up)
2014: KK (KXIP runners-up)
2015: MI (CSK runners-up)
2016: SRH (RCB runners-up)
2017: MI (Rising Pune Supergiant runners-up)
2018: CSK (SRH runners-up)
2019: MI (CSK runners-up)
2020: MI (DC runners-up)
Who are the record holders in IPL history?
Following are some of the records and their respective holders in the history of IPL:
Highest team total: RCB, 263/5 against now-defunct Pune Warriors at Bangalore, 2013
Lowest team total: RCB, 49 vs KKR at Kolkata, 2017
Most Runs: Virat Kohli, 5878 runs
Highest individual score: Chris Gayle, 175* vs Pune Warriors.
Best strike rate: Andre Russell, 182.33
Most sixes: Chris Gayle, 349
Most wickets: Lasith Malinga, 170
Best bowling figures: Alzarri Joseph, 6/12 vs SRH at Hyderabad, 2019
Best economy: Rashid Khan, 6.24
Most dots: Harbhajan Singh, 1,249.
Most titles: MI, 5.
What are the squads of each IPL 2021 team?
Here's the complete squad of respective IPL sides:
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.