MUMBAI: The 13th season of the Indian Premier League will kick off on March 29 with defending champions Mumbai Indians facing 2019 runners-up Chennai Super Kings at the Wankhede Stadium in the opening match, the IPL governing council informed the league’s franchises on Saturday night.
The full timetable of fixtures during the league phase was released to the teams ahead of BCCI’s official announcement, which is awaited.
This year, there most significant change in the cash-rich Twenty20 league’s schedule is that doubleheaders on Saturdays have been done away with. In the upcoming IPL season, there will only be six doubleheaders, all of them taking place on Sundays.
Barring Rajasthan Royals, who have listed Guwahati as their probable second home venue, the other seven franchises have stuck to their traditional venues for home games.
The whole season will be played over 50 days (compared to 44 in the last season) with the league phase ending on May 17.
India play South Africa in a One Day International (ODI) series before the IPL that ends on March 18. As regards the IPL scheduling, yet another indication (if one more was needed) that the new power dispensation running the BCCI gives not a fig for the Lodha committee recommendation, the tournament starts 11 days after the conclusion in Kolkata on March 18 of the upcoming three-match ODI series against South Africa. For the record, the Lodha panel had instructed that at least a fortnight’s gap should be maintained between India’s last international game and the IPL’s kick-off.
Meanwhile, it is also learnt that India is set to play three ODIs and three T20 Internationals in Sri Lanka after the IPL.
