IPL 2026 Schedule: When will Indian Premier League start? Fixtures to be released on Monday

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) will announce the schedule for the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 on Monday, March 9, with the release expected between 4 PM and 6 PM IST. Fans had anticipated a partial reveal on the day of the T20 World Cup 2026 final, but the announcement has been pushed back by roughly 24 hours.

Tournament to kick off on March 28

The IPL 2026 season is confirmed to begin on March 28, slightly later than the originally planned start date of March 26. This adjustment was made internally by the IPL authorities.

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Star Sports has also confirmed the March 28 opening date.

Schedule to be released in two phases

Due to upcoming assembly elections in Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, and Assam, the BCCI is likely to release the full schedule in two phases. The initial announcement on March 9 will cover the first 15-20 days of the tournament, roughly up to mid-April.

The remaining fixtures will be finalized and announced later, once the Election Commission declares the polling dates and phases in the affected states. This approach ensures better coordination for security and logistics at venues in those regions.

Key teams impacted include Chennai Super Kings (Chepauk, Chennai), Kolkata Knight Riders (Eden Gardens, Kolkata), and Rajasthan Royals (secondary home ground in Guwahati, Assam).

Defending Champions RCB to open at home

Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB), the defending champions after defeating Punjab Kings in last season’s final, will host the tournament opener on March 28 at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru.

RCB is set to play five of their seven home matches at Chinnaswamy, with the remaining two in Raipur. The venue recently received clearance despite past concerns following a tragic stampede during victory celebrations last year, which claimed 11 lives.

Some Rajasthan Royals matches are also slated for Guwahati.

Let’s check out the squad for the IPL 2026:

Royal Challengers Bengaluru: Rajat Patidar (c), Virat Kohli, Devdutt Padikkal, Phil Salt, Jitesh Sharma, Krunal Pandya, Swapnil Singh, Tim David, Romario Shepherd, Jacob Bethell, Josh Hazlewood, Yash Dayal, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Nuwan Thushara, Rasikh Salam, Abhinandan Singh, Suyash Sharma, Venkatesh Iyer, Jacob Duffy, Satvik Deswal, Mangesh Yadav, Jordan Cox, Vicky Ostwal, Vihaan Malhotra, Kanishk Chouhan

Chennai Super Kings: Anshul Kamboj, Gurjapneet Singh, Jamie Overton, MS Dhoni, Mukesh Choudhary, Nathan Ellis, Noor Ahmad, Ramakrishna Ghosh, Sanju Samson (T), Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shivam Dube, Shreyas Gopal, Syed Khaleel Ahmed, Ayush Mhatre, Dewald Brevis, Urvil Patel, Akeal Hosein, Prashant Veer, Kartik Sharma, Matthew Short, Aman Khan, Sarfaraz Khan, Matt Henry, Rahul Chahar, Jake Foulkes

Mumbai Indians: Hardik Pandya, Rohit Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Varma, Ryan Rickleton, Robin Minz, Mitchell Santner, Corbin Bosch, Naman Dhir, Jasprit Bumrah, Trent Boult, Allah Ghafanzar, Ashwani Kumar, Deepak Chahar, Will Jacks, Raghu Sharma, Raj Angad Bawa, Sherfane Rutherford, Mayank Markande , Shardul Thakur Quinton de Kock, Danish Malewar, Mohammed Izhar, Atharva Ankolekar, Mayank Rawat

Kolkata Knight Riders: Rinku Singh, Ajinkya Rahane (C), Manish Pandey, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Rahul Tripathi, Cameron Green, Sunil Narine, Ramandeep Singh, Rovman Powell, Rachin Ravindra, Anukul Roy, Finn Allen, Tim Seifert, Tejasvi Singh, Matheesha Pathirana, Varun Chakaravarthy, Harshit Rana, Umran Malik, Vaibhav Arora, Kartik Tyagi, Prashant Solanki, Mustafizur Rahman, Akash Deep, Sarthak Ranjan, Daksh Kamra

Rajasthan Royals: Shubham Dubey, Vaibhav Suryavanshi, Lhuan-Dre Pretorius, Shimron Hetmyer, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Dhruv Jurel, Riyan Parag, Yudhvir Singh Charak, Jofra Archer, Tushar Deshpande, Kwena Maphaka, Nandre Burger Ravindra Jadeja, Sam Curran, Donovan Ferreira, Ravi Bishnoi, Ravi Singh, Sushant Mishra, Vignesh Puthur, Yash Raj Punja, Aman Rao, Brijesh Sharma, Kuldeep Sen, Adam Milne

Delhi Capitals: Axar Patel (c), KL Rahul, Abishek Porel, Tristan Stubbs, Karun Nair, Sameer Rizvi, Ashutosh Sharma, Vipraj Nigam, Madhav Tiwari, Tripurana Vijay, Ajay Mandal, Kuldeep Yadav, Mitchell Starc, T. Natarajan, Mukesh Kumar, Dushmantha Chameera, Nitish Rana, David Miller, Ben Duckett, Auqib Nabi Dar, Pathum Nissanka, Lungi Ngidi, Sahil Parakh, Prithvi Shaw, Kyle Jamieson

Gujarat Titans: Shubman Gill (c), Sai Sudharsan, Kumar Kushagra, Anuj Rawat, Jos Buttler, Nishant Sindhu, Washington Sundar, Arshad Khan, Shahrukh Khan, Rahul Tewatia, Kagiso Rabada, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Ishant Sharma, Gurnoor Singh Brar, Rashid Khan, Manav Suthar, Sai Kishore, Jayant Yadav, Glenn Phillips, Ashok Sharma, Jason Holder, Tom Banton, Prithvi Raj, and Luke Wood

Lucknow Super Giants: Abdul Samad, Ayush Badoni, Aiden Markram, Matthew Breetzke, Himmat Singh, Rishabh Pant (c), Nicholas Pooran, Mitchell Marsh, Shahbaz Ahmed, Arshin Kulkarni, Mayank Yadav, Avesh Khan, Mohsin Khan, Manimaran Siddharth, Digvesh Rathi, Prince Yadav, Akash Singh. Traded in: Mohammed Shami, Arjun Tendulkar, Wanindu Hasaranga, Anrich Nortje, Mukul Choudhary, Naman Tiwari, Akshat Raghuwanshi, Josh Inglis.

Sunrisers Hyderabad: Pat Cummins, Heinrich Klaasen, Ishan Kishan, Salil Arora, Travis Head, Abhishek Sharma, Aniket Verma, R. Smaran, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Liam Livingstone, Harshal Patel, Kamindu Mendis, Brydon Carse, Harsh Dubey, Jack Edwards, Jaydev Unadkat, Eshan Malinga, Zeeshan Ansari, Shivam Mavi, Sakib Hussain, Onkar Tarmale, Amit Kumar, Praful Hinge, Krains Fuletra

Punjab Kings: Prabhsimran Singh, Priyansh Arya, Shreyas Iyer, Shashank Singh, Nehal Wadhera, Marcus Stoinis, Azmatullah Omarzai, Marco Jansen, Harpreet Brar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Arshdeep Singh, Musheer Khan, Pyala Avinash, Harnoor Pannu, Suryansh Shedge, Mitchell Owen, Xavier Bartlett, Lockie Ferguson, Vyshak Vijaykumar, Yash Thakur, Vishnu Vinod, Cooper Connolly, Ben Dwarshuis, Pravin Dubey, Vishal Nishad.