After a long wait, the Board of Cricket Control in India has finally confirmed the starting date of the 2026 Indian Premier League. As per a recent social media post from Star Sports, the IPL 2026 will be starting on March 28, as speculated.
The announcement was made a little before India walked into play the final against New Zealand in Ahmedabad, on MMarch 8.
However, only the starting date of the 18th IPL season has been announced. The rest of the matches are yet to be declared.
Meanwhile, the teams have already started uniting in their dens for their practice sessions. Last year's runners-up, the Punjab Kings, had already been practicing for months in Dubai before shifting to Dharamshala. Chennai Super Kings have also started their practicing session with their former captain MS Dhoni checking in for a few days before attending other events.
The defending champions, the Royal Challengers Bengaluru, will be uniting at the Chinnaswamy Stadium on March 15, as per the new KSCA president, Venkatesh Prasad.
Where will the opening match of the 2026 IPL be played?
The Royal Challengers Bengaluru has confirmed that Chinnaswamy Stadium will be hosting five of their home matches. Two of their home matches will be hosted in Raipur due to previous commitments.
Reports have assured that Chinnaswamy Stadium will be playing a vital role this season. After the stampede that happened in the 2025 victory parade, the stadium underwent a temporary ban. It is currently seeing some necessary security and infrastructural upgrades. And the stadium will be hosting the opening ceremony, which means RCB will be playing the opening match.
Apart from the opening match, it will host one of the playoff matches and also the final match.
What happened in the 2025 IPL final?
In 2025, IPL was awaiting a first-time winner, with RCB ending the wait finally after 18 long years. Punjab Kings, under the leadership of Shreyas Iyer, did manage to uplift their image as a fighting, dominating team. However chasing 191 in Ahmedabad, they lost the match by just 6 runs despite a valiant effort from Shashank Singh (61*).
Batting first, Virat Kohli anchored the innings with 43 runs off 35 balls. Contributions from Rajat Patidar (26), Liam Livingstone (25), and Jitesh Sharma (24) helped set a competitive total. Arshdeep Singh and Kyle Jamieson were the pick of the bowlers for Punjab, taking 3 wickets each for RCB.
With the ball, RCB was pretty disciplined in the death led by Krunal Pandya (2/17) and Bhuvneshwar Kumar (2/38), restricted Punjab to 184.