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The Indian Premier League is a franchise-based Twenty20 cricket tournament organised by the Board of Control for Cricket in India.
First held in 2008, it quickly became the most lucrative cricket tournament in the world, with a brand value of $12 billion according to a December 2024 report by consultancy firm Brand Finance.
Here is what you need to know about IPL 2025 which kicks off on March 22, Saturday:
WHEN IS THE IPL HAPPENING?
* The 18th edition of the IPL runs from March 22 to May 25.
WHAT IS THE FORMAT OF THE IPL?
* The 10 participating teams are split into two groups. Each team play twice, home and away, against other teams in the group and the team in the same row in the other group, along with one match each against the remaining four teams from the opposite group, totalling 14 matches in the group stage.
* The top four teams in a unified points table qualify for the playoffs. The top two teams play each other in 'Qualifier 1' with the winners reaching the final.
* The teams placed third and fourth compete in an 'Eliminator' with the winners progressing to 'Qualifier 2' to face the losers of 'Qualifier 1' for a place in the final.
* Kolkata Knight Riders, Royal Challengers Bengaluru, Rajasthan Royals, Chennai Super Kings and Punjab Kings are in Group 1. Sunrisers Hyderabad, Delhi Capitals, Gujarat Titans, Mumbai Indians and Lucknow Super Giants are in Group 2.
WHERE IS THE IPL TAKING PLACE?
* The IPL is held in the home cities of the franchises based across India. However, some teams may choose to split their home games between two or more cities.
* The 2025 edition will be played across 13 venues.
* Eden Gardens, the home ground of champions Kolkata Knight Riders, will host the opening game, 'Qualifier 2' and the final. Sunrisers Hyderabad, who finished second in the table last season, will host the 'Qualifier 1' and 'Eliminator' matches.
WHO IS INVOLVED IN IPL 2025?
* Some of the biggest names in cricket from around the world will be in action, with England's white-ball captain Jos Buttler fetching the highest price for an overseas player at Rs 15.75 crore ($1.81 million) at the player auction in November, joining Gujarat Titans.
* The teams spent over $72.51 million at the auction, with Indian wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant, signed by Lucknow Super Giants for $3.11 million, earning the highest price tag.
* World Cup-winning India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who has retired from international cricket, will play for Chennai Super Kings. Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, who both retired from international T20 cricket after India won the 20-over World Cup last year, will also be in action for Mumbai Indians and Royal Challengers Bengaluru respectively.
* Some former greats of the sport are in the competition as coaches - Ricky Ponting, Rahul Dravid and Stephen Fleming at Punjab, Rajasthan and Chennai respectively.
* Players from India's politically-estranged rivals Pakistan have not played in the IPL since its opening edition in 2008.
Pakistan's government barred its players from participating in IPL 2009 citing security concerns amid tense relations after the Mumbai militant attacks in November 2008.
Although Pakistan's authorities cleared their players to participate in the next edition, Pakistani players were snubbed from IPL 2010 and have not featured in the competition since.
IPL 2025 FULL SQUAD LISTS
The following are the full squads of the 10 teams, who will play 74 matches in the competition through a league stage and the four-team playoffs.
Chennai Super Kings
Squad: Ruturaj Gaikwad (captain), Noor Ahmad, Khaleel Ahmed, Ravichandran Ashwin, Vansh Bedi, Mukesh Choudhary, Devon Conway, Sam Curran, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Shivam Dube, Nathan Ellis, Ramakrishna Ghosh, Shreyas Gopal, Deepak Hooda, Ravindra Jadeja, Anshul Kamboj, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Jamie Overton, Matheesha Pathirana, Shaik Rasheed, Rachin Ravindra, Vijay Shankar, Andre Siddarth, Gurjapneet Singh, Rahul Tripathi
Coach: Stephen Fleming
Best performance: Champions (2010, 2011, 2018, 2021, 2023)
Delhi Capitals
Squad: Axar Patel (captain), Dushmantha Chameera, Faf du Plessis, Donovan Ferreira, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Mukesh Kumar, Manvanth Kumar, Ajay Mandal, Karun Nair, Darshan Nalkande, Thangarasu Natarajan, Vipraj Nigam, Abhishek Porel, KL Rahul, Sameer Rizvi, Ashutosh Sharma, Mohit Sharma, Mitchell Starc, Madhav Tiwari, Tristan Stubbs, Tripurana Vijay, Kuldeep Yadav
Coach: Hemang Badani
Best Performance: Runners-up (2020)
Gujarat Titans
Squad: Shubman Gill (captain), Gurnoor Brar, Jos Buttler, Gerald Coetzee, Karim Janat, Arshad Khan, Rashid Khan, Shahrukh Khan, Kulwant Khejroliya, Sai Kishore, Prasidh Krishna, Kumar Kushagra, Mahipal Lomror, Glenn Phillips, Kagiso Rabada, Anuj Rawat, Sherfane Rutherford, Ishant Sharma, Nishant Sindhu, Mohammed Siraj, Sai Sudharsan, Washington Sundar, Manav Suthar, Rahul Tewatia, Jayant Yadav
Coach: Ashish Nehra
Best performance: Champions (2022)
Kolkata Knight Riders
Squad: Ajinkya Rahane (captain), Moeen Ali, Vaibhav Arora, Varun Chakravarthy, Quinton de Kock, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Venkatesh Iyer, Spencer Johnson, Mayank Markande, Sunil Narine, Anrich Nortje, Manish Pandey, Rovman Powell, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Harshit Rana, Anukul Roy, Andre Russell, Ramandeep Singh, Rinku Singh, Luvnith Sisodia, Chetan Sakariya
Coach: Chandrakant Pandit
Best performance: Champions (2012, 2014, 2024)
Lucknow Super Giants
Squad: Rishabh Pant (captain), Shahbaz Ahmed, Ayush Badoni, Ravi Bishnoi, Matthew Breetzke, Yuvraj Chaudhary, Akash Deep, Rajvardhan Hangargekar, Avesh Khan, Mohsin Khan, Arshin Kulkarni, Shamar Joseph, Aryan Juyal, Aiden Markram, Mitchell Marsh, David Miller, Nicholas Pooran, Abdul Samad, Manimaran Siddharth, Akash Singh, Digvesh Rathi, Himmat Singh, Mayank Yadav, Prince Yadav
Coach: Justin Langer
Best performance: Playoffs (2022, 2023)
Mumbai Indians
Squad: Hardik Pandya (captain), Raj Bawa, Trent Boult, Jasprit Bumrah, Deepak Chahar, Naman Dhir, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Will Jacks, Bevon Jacobs, Ashwani Kumar, Robin Minz, Vignesh Puthur, Satyanarayana Raju, Ryan Rickelton, Mitchell Santner, Karn Sharma, Rohit Sharma, Krishnan Shrijith, Arjun Tendulkar, Reece Topley, Tilak Varma, Suryakumar Yadav
Coach: Mahela Jayawardene
Best performance: Champions (2013, 2015, 2017, 2019, 2020)
Punjab Kings
Squad: Shreyas Iyer (captain), Priyansh Arya, Pyla Avinash, Xavier Bartlett, Harpreet Brar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Praveen Dubey, Lockie Ferguson, Aaron Hardie, Josh Inglis, Marco Jansen, Musheer Khan, Glenn Maxwell, Azmatullah Omarzai, Kuldeep Sen, Suryansh Shedge, Arshdeep Singh, Harnoor Singh, Prabhsimran Singh, Shashank Singh, Marcus Stoinis, Yash Thakur, Vishnu Vinod, Nehal Wadhera, Vijaykumar Vyshak
Coach: Ricky Ponting
Best performance: Runners-up (2014)
Rajasthan Royals
Squad: Sanju Samson (captain), Jofra Archer, Yudhvir Singh, Tushar Deshpande, Shubham Dubey, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Wanindu Hasaranga, Shimron Hetmyer, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Dhruv Jurel, Kumar Kartikeya, Akash Madhwal, Kwena Maphaka, Riyan Parag, Nitish Rana, Kunal Singh Rathore, Ashok Sharma, Sandeep Sharma, Vaibhav Suryavanshi, Maheesh Theekshana
Coach: Rahul Dravid
Best performance: Champions (2008)
Royal Challengers Bengaluru
Squad: Rajat Patidar (captain), Virat Kohli, Jacob Bethell, Manoj Bhandage, Swastik Chikara, Rasikh Salam Dar, Tim David, Yash Dayal, Josh Hazlewood, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Liam Livingstone, Lungi Ngidi, Devdutt Padikkal, Krunal Pandya, Mohit Rathee, Phil Salt, Jitesh Sharma, Suyash Sharma, Romario Shepherd, Abhinandan Singh, Swapnil Singh, Nuwan Thushara
Coach: Andy Flower
Best performance: Runners-up (2009, 2011, 2016)
Sunrisers Hyderabad
Squad: Pat Cummins (captain), Zeeshan Ansari, Sachin Baby, Rahul Chahar, Travis Head, Ishan Kishan, Heinrich Klaasen, Eshan Malinga, Abhinav Manohar, Kamindu Mendis, Harshal Patel, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Mohammed Shami, Abhishek Sharma, Simarjeet Singh, Atharva Taide, Jaydev Unadkat, Aniket Verma, Adam Zampa, Wiaan Mulder
Coach: Daniel Vettori
Best performance: Champions (2016)
IPL 2025 FIXTURES
Matches will kick off at 1930
