NEW DELHI: The 18th edition of the Indian Premier League season will kick-off with a high-octane clash between defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders and Royal Challengers Bengaluru at Eden Gardens on March 22.
Eden Gardens, the home ground of IPL 2024 title winners KKR, will also be the venue for the grand finale on May 25.
Additionally, the venue will also host Qualifier 2 on May 23.
The other two play-off matches — Qualifier 1 on May 20 and the Eliminator on May 21 — will take place in Hyderabad, the home ground of 2024 runners-up Sunrisers Hyderabad.
The season will feature a total of 74 matches that will be played across 65 days.
There will be 12 double-headers and the matches will be played across 13 cities — 10 host cities plus Guwahati, Visakhapatnam and Dharamsala.
While the afternoon games will begin at 03.30 PM IST, the evening games will begin from 07.30 PM IST.
Group 1
Kolkata Knight Riders
Royal Challengers Bengaluru
Rajasthan Royals
Chennai Super Kings
Punjab Kings
Group 2
Sunrisers Hyderabad
Delhi Capitals
Gujarat Titans
Mumbai Indians
Lucknow Super Giants
SRH, runners-up last season, will host 2008 champions Rajasthan Royals at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium on March 23.
Later that evening, Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians, the two most successful teams in IPL’s history with five titles each, will face off at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in what is also the first double-header of IPL 2025.
CSK and MI will later meet for the reverse clash at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on April 20.
Delhi Capitals will begin their IPL 2025 campaign against Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) in Visakhapatnam on March 24, while 2022 champions Gujarat Titans (GT) are slated to open their campaign against Punjab Kings (PBKS) in Ahmedabad on March 25.
Visakhapatnam and Guwahati will host two home matches each of DC and RR respectively, while Punjab Kings will play its three home games in Dharamsala.
KKR and DC are yet to announce their new captains for the IPL 2025 season.
RCB, meanwhile, recently appointed Rajat Patidar as their new captain while Shreyas Iyer and Rishabh Pant were previously announced as new skippers of PBKS and LSG respectively.
