The 2025 Indian Premier League (also known as IPL 18 and branded as TATA IPL 2025) will be the 18th edition of the Indian Premier League. This year’s tournament will feature ten teams competing in 74 matches from March 21 to May 25, 2025. Kolkata’s Eden Gardens will host both the opening ceremony and the final as the defending champions, Kolkata Knight Riders, return to defend their title.
Background
The Indian Premier League, a premier franchise-based Twenty20 cricket league in India, has been organized annually by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) since its inaugural edition in 2008. Kolkata Knight Riders enter this edition as the defending champions, having claimed their third IPL title in 2024 after defeating Sunrisers Hyderabad in the final.
Governing Council
This edition will mark the first IPL season following Jay Shah’s appointment as the chairman of the International Cricket Council (ICC) in December 2024. Arun Singh Dhumal and Avishek Dalmiya will continue in their respective roles as IPL Chairman and Treasurer. Meanwhile, Devajit Saikia and Prabhtej Singh Bhatia have replaced Shah and Ashish Shelar as the new Secretary and Treasurer of the BCCI.
Tournament Format
The tournament will retain its previous format, where each team plays twice against teams in their group and the team in the same row in the other group. Additionally, they will face four other teams once. Following the group stage, the top four teams, based on aggregate points, will advance to the playoffs:
- Qualifier 1: Top two teams compete for a direct spot in the final.
- Eliminator: Third and fourth-placed teams face off.
- Qualifier 2: Loser of Qualifier 1 plays the winner of the Eliminator for the remaining final spot.
The Governing Council has decided to maintain 74 matches in this season to manage players’ workloads, with plans to increase to 84 matches starting in 2026.
Schedule
The 2025 season will begin on March 21 to allow a two-week gap after the 2025 ICC Champions Trophy final on March 9. The tournament will run concurrently with the 2025 Pakistan Super League, which has shifted to accommodate the ICC Champions Trophy.
Broadcasting
This IPL edition will be the first after the merger of Viacom18 and Star India, forming JioStar. Star Sports and JioCinema acquired the IPL’s satellite and digital broadcasting rights for the 2023–27 cycle. Following the merger, JioCinema will be integrated into Disney+ Hotstar, consolidating the streaming platform.
Teams Overview
The ten teams competing in IPL 2025 remain unchanged from the previous season, with some adjustments to their personnel. Notably, defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders will aim to replicate their success from 2024. Below is an updated summary of teams, their 2024 performance, and leadership:
Teams Table
| Team | 2024 Performance | Head Coach | Captain |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kolkata Knight Riders | Champions | Chandrakant Pandit | TBD |
| Sunrisers Hyderabad | Runner-up | Daniel Vettori | Pat Cummins |
| Rajasthan Royals | 3rd Place | Rahul Dravid | Sanju Samson |
| Royal Challengers Bangalore | 4th Place | Andy Flower | TBD |
| Chennai Super Kings | 5th Place | Stephen Fleming | Ruturaj Gaikwad |
| Delhi Capitals | 6th Place | Hemang Badani | TBD |
| Lucknow Super Giants | 7th Place | Justin Langer | Rishabh Pant |
| Gujarat Titans | 8th Place | Ashish Nehra | Shubman Gill |
| Punjab Kings | 9th Place | Ricky Ponting | Shreyas Iyer |
| Mumbai Indians | 10th Place | Mahela Jayawardene | Hardik Pandya |
Squads
All ten franchises retained key players or made impactful signings during the 2025 Mega Auction held in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Significant highlights included:
- Heinrich Klaasen becoming the most expensive retained player at ₹23 crore (US$2.7 million).
- Rishabh Pant setting a new record as the costliest player in IPL history, sold for ₹27 crore (US$3.1 million) to Lucknow Super Giants.
- Vaibhav Suryavanshi making history as the youngest player, signed by Rajasthan Royals at just 13 years old.
Squads for the 2025 Indian Premier League
The 2025 Indian Premier League (IPL) features top players from across the globe and India, with teams retaining and acquiring star players to strengthen their squads. Below are the squads for each franchise, showcasing a mix of experienced players, emerging talents, and exciting new signings. Each team has carefully curated its roster to compete for the prestigious IPL title.
| Chennai Super Kings | Delhi Capitals | Gujarat Titans | Kolkata Knight Riders | Lucknow Super Giants |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ruturaj Gaikwad (c) | Harry Brook | Shubman Gill (c) | Moeen Ali | Rishabh Pant (c) |
| Noor Ahmad | Dushmantha Chameera | Gurnoor Brar | Vaibhav Arora | Shahbaz Ahmed |
| Khaleel Ahmed | Faf du Plessis | Jos Buttler | Varun Chakravarthy | Ayush Badoni |
| Ravichandran Ashwin | Donovan Ferreira | Gerald Coetzee | Quinton de Kock | Ravi Bishnoi |
| Vansh Bedi | Jake Fraser-McGurk | Karim Janat | Rahmanullah Gurbaz | Matthew Breetzke |
| Mukesh Choudhary | Mukesh Kumar | Arshad Khan | Venkatesh Iyer | Yuvraj Chaudhary |
| Devon Conway | Manvanth Kumar L | Rashid Khan | Spencer Johnson | Akash Deep |
| Sam Curran | Ajay Mandal | Shahrukh Khan | Umran Malik | Rajvardhan Hangargekar |
| MS Dhoni | Karun Nair | Kulwant Khejroliya | Mayank Markande | Avesh Khan |
| Shivam Dube | Darshan Nalkande | Sai Kishore | Sunil Narine | Mohsin Khan |
| Nathan Ellis | T. Natarajan | Prasidh Krishna | Anrich Nortje | Arshin Kulkarni |
| Ramakrishna Ghosh | Vipraj Nigam | Kumar Kushagra | Manish Pandey | Shamar Joseph |
| Shreyas Gopal | Axar Patel | Mahipal Lomror | Rovman Powell | Aryan Juyal |
| Deepak Hooda | Abhishek Porel | Glenn Phillips | Angkrish Raghuvanshi | Aiden Markram |
| Ravindra Jadeja | KL Rahul | Kagiso Rabada | Ajinkya Rahane | Mitchell Marsh |
| Anshul Kamboj | Sameer Rizvi | Anuj Rawat | Harshit Rana | David Miller |
| Kamlesh Nagarkoti | Ashutosh Sharma | Sherfane Rutherford | Anukul Roy | Nicholas Pooran |
| Jamie Overton | Mohit Sharma | Ishant Sharma | Andre Russell | Abdul Samad |
| Matheesha Pathirana | Mitchell Starc | Nishant Sindhu | Ramandeep Singh | Manimaran Siddharth |
| Shaik Rasheed | Madhav Tiwari | Mohammed Siraj | Rinku Singh | Akash Singh |
| Rachin Ravindra | Tristan Stubbs | Sai Sudharsan | Luvnith Sisodia | Digvesh Singh |
| Vijay Shankar | Tripurana Vijay | Washington Sundar | Himmat Singh | |
| Andre Siddarth | Kuldeep Yadav | Manav Suthar | Mayank Yadav | |
| Gurjapneet Singh | Rahul Tewatia | Prince Yadav | ||
| Rahul Tripathi | Jayant Yadav |
| Mumbai Indians | Punjab Kings | Rajasthan Royals | Royal Challengers Bengaluru | Sunrisers Hyderabad |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hardik Pandya (c) | Shreyas Iyer (c) | Sanju Samson (c) | Jacob Bethell | Pat Cummins (c) |
| Raj Angad Bawa | Priyansh Arya | Jofra Archer | Manoj Bhandage | Zeeshan Ansari |
| Trent Boult | Pyla Avinash | Yudhvir Charak | Swastik Chikara | Sachin Baby |
| Jasprit Bumrah | Xavier Bartlett | Tushar Deshpande | Rasikh Salam Dar | Brydon Carse |
| Deepak Chahar | Harpreet Brar | Shubham Dubey | Tim David | Rahul Chahar |
| Naman Dhir | Yuzvendra Chahal | Fazalhaq Farooqi | Yash Dayal | Travis Head |
| Allah Ghazanfar | Praveen Dubey | Wanindu Hasaranga | Josh Hazlewood | Ishan Kishan |
| Will Jacks | Lockie Ferguson | Shimron Hetmyer | Virat Kohli | Heinrich Klaasen |
| Bevon Jacobs | Aaron Hardie | Yashasvi Jaiswal | Bhuvneshwar Kumar | Eshan Malinga |
| Ashwani Kumar | Josh Inglis | Dhruv Jurel | Liam Livingstone | Abhinav Manohar |
| Robin Minz | Marco Jansen | Kumar Kartikeya | Lungi Ngidi | Harshal Patel |
| Vignesh Puthur | Musheer Khan | Akash Madhwal | Devdutt Padikkal | Nitish Kumar Reddy |
| Satyanarayana Raju | Glenn Maxwell | Kwena Maphaka | Krunal Pandya | Mohammad Shami |
| Ryan Rickelton | Azmatullah Omarzai | Riyan Parag | Rajat Patidar | Abhishek Sharma |
| Mitchell Santner | Kuldeep Sen | Nitish Rana | Mohit Rathee | Simarjeet Singh |
| Karn Sharma | Suryansh Shedge | Kunal Rathore | Phil Salt | Atharva Taide |
| Rohit Sharma | Arshdeep Singh | Ashok Sharma | Jitesh Sharma | Jaydev Unadkat |
| Krishnan Shrijith | Harnoor Singh | Sandeep Sharma | Suyash Sharma | Aniket Verma |
| Arjun Tendulkar | Prabhsimran Singh | Vaibhav Suryavanshi | Romario Shepherd | Adam Zampa |
| Reece Topley | Shashank Singh | Swapnil Singh | Nuwan Thushara | Kamindu Mendis |
| Tilak Varma | Marcus Stoinis | Swapnil Singh | ||
| Lizaad Williams | Vishnu Vinod | Nuwan Thushara | ||
| Suryakumar Yadav | Vijaykumar Vyshak | |||
| Yash Thakur | ||||
| Nehal Wadhera |
Venues
The tournament’s marquee matches will be held as follows:
- Opening Match: Kolkata Knight Riders vs. TBA at Eden Gardens, Kolkata.
- Qualifier 1 and Eliminator: Hosted in Hyderabad.
- Qualifier 2 and Final: Hosted at Eden Gardens, Kolkata.
2025 IPL Playoffs Format and Schedule
The IPL 2025 playoffs will be held in two cities: Hyderabad and Kolkata. Here’s how the playoff matches are structured:
Venue Details:
- Qualifier 1 and Eliminator will be played in Hyderabad.
- Qualifier 2 and the Final will be played at Eden Gardens, Kolkata.
Playoffs Bracket
- Qualifier 1 (May 2025 – Hyderabad):
- 1st Placed Team vs 2nd Placed Team
- Eliminator (May 2025 – Hyderabad):
- 3rd Placed Team vs 4th Placed Team
- Qualifier 2 (May 2025 – Kolkata):
- Loser of Qualifier 1 vs Winner of Eliminator
- Final (25 May 2025 – Kolkata):
- Winner of Qualifier 1 vs Winner of Qualifier 2
Playoffs Matches:
- Qualifier 1: May 2025, Hyderabad
- The top two teams will face off to secure a place in the final.
- Eliminator: May 2025, Hyderabad
- The 3rd and 4th placed teams will battle it out. The winner advances to the next stage.
- Qualifier 2: May 2025, Kolkata
- The loser of Qualifier 1 will meet the winner of the Eliminator for the second spot in the final.
- Final: 25 May 2025, Kolkata
- The winners of Qualifier 1 and Qualifier 2 will meet in the grand finale to determine the IPL 2025 champion.
References:
- IPL 2025 Schedule and Updates (Hindustan Times)
- IPL 2025 Playoffs Details (ESPNcricinfo)
- IPL 2025 Updates (The Times of India)
- KKR Wins IPL 2024 Title (The Guardian)
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