All to know about the IPL 2025: Captains, schedule, prize money, venues

From big-name players to key talking points, media’s lowdown on cricket’s most lucrative franchise T20 league.

The Indian Premier League is set to return for its 18th season on Saturday as the Kolkata Knight Riders open their title defence at their home ground, the Eden Gardens.

The tournament will see 10 teams vying for the chance to win the world’s most lucrative franchise Twenty20 cricket league.

Here’s what you need to know about IPL 2025:

The two-month-long tournament will begin on March 22 in Kolkata and conclude on May 25 in the same city.

Day matches will begin at 3:30pm (10:00 GMT) and night matches will get under way at 7:30pm (14:00 GMT).

The tournament’s schedule has changed on a few occasions. The league started in a round-robin format, but it was changed to a group format and this season all 10 teams will play each other twice with the return of the league-style format.

The top two teams at the end of the league games will play the first qualifier while the third- and fourth-placed teams will face off in the eliminator.

The winner of the first qualifier will book a place in the final, while the loser will play the winner of the eliminator in the second qualifier. The winner of this match will become the second team to qualify for the final.

There has been some chopping and changing ahead of this season, with several new leaders taking charge. Here are the teams and their captains:

Wicketkeeper-batter Pant was the most expensive signing at the IPL 2025 auction held in November. The Lucknow captain was bagged for $3.2m.

The $3m threshold was first broken by Punjab, as they bought Iyer for $3.17m, but Pant topped the list by the end of the auction.

The most expensive foreign player was Jos Buttler. The former England white-ball captain was signed by Gujarat for $1.8m.

As each team will play the other nine teams twice, the tournament will be played in a home-and-away format. In addition to the 10 home grounds, three neutral venues will also host some games.