IPL 2021 schedule: IPL 2021 to begin from April 9; no home matches to be played

IPL 2021 schedule: BCCI have announced the fixtures of the upcoming 14th season of the Indian Premier League.

Ending the wait of fans and multiple speculations regarding the 14th season of the Indian Premier League, BCCI have announced the fixtures as the tournament is set to be played between April 9 – May 30.

The season will kick-start with defending champions Mumbai Indians taking on Royal Challengers Bangalore at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai. The final day of the league stage will be a double-header day at the Eden Gardens slated to host Mumbai vs Delhi Capitals and Bangalore vs Chennai Super Kings.

All in all, IPL 2021 will have 11 double headers with a solitary double header fixture on a Saturday (May 8). On the other hand, there are double headers slated to happen on a Wednesday (April 21) and Friday (May 21).

IPL 2021 schedule

The 52-day tournament will be played across six venues namely Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata. Ahmedabad, which has the refurbished Narendra Modi Stadium as the biggest cricket stadium in the world, will host eight league matches before hosting knockout phase of IPL 2021.

Among the eight franchises, Hyderabad, Mohali and Jaipur haven’t been allotted any matches to minimize travel in times of the COVID-19 pandemic. To further reduce the travel, each team will only play at four venues. In simple words, each team will travel only thrice during the league stage.

While Chennai, Mumbai, Kolkata and Bengaluru will host 10 matches each during the league stage, Ahmedabad and Delhi will host eight matches each.

To rule out the conversation around some teams playing more home matches than others, the organizers have shelved the concept of home matches. It is worth mentioning that this will be the first time when an IPL season being played in India won’t have matches played at home venues.

For IPL 2021 full schedule and fixtures, click here.