The 18th season of cricket's top T20 tournament is about to start, and it will feature 10 teams competing in 74 matches from 22 March to 25 May 2025. It will held across 13 cities in India, with Kolkata hosting the opening ceremony and the final as the Kolkata Knight Riders are the defending champions.
And as ever, SuperSport will bring you all the action live.
Each of the 10 teams will play a total of 14 league matches (seven home and seven away), totaling 70 league matches, followed by the three playoff matches and the final .
FORMAT
Each team will play five teams twice and the remaining four teams only once (two only home and two only away).
For 2025 season, there will be two groups, but still only one standings table.
Teams in the same group will play each other twice - home and away - and then each team will play the team opposite them in the other group home and away.
The groups are:
Group A
- CSK
- KKR
- RR
- RCB
- PBKS
Group B
- MI
- SRH
- GT
- DC
- LSG
So CSK will play the other four teams in Group A home and away, and will play MI home and away too. They will then play the remaining four teams in Group B just once.
DEFENDING CHAMPS
Defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders have handed the captaincy to Ajinkya Rahane for IPL 2025. A seasoned leader with vast experience, Rahane previously played for KKR in 2022 and is among the select few to have featured in the IPL since its inception in 2008.
Despite the hurdle of their mega auction, most of KKR's title-winning core has remained. However, some big changes have also taken place. Gautam Gambhir now wears blue, not purple.
So does Abhishek Nayar, who was instrumental in nurturing the team's Indian core. And most importantly, while captaincy has been handed to capable hands, it isn't someone of the KKR mould.
IPL 2025 SQUADS:
CHENNAI SUPER KINGS: Ruturaj Gaikwad (captain), MS Dhoni, Shivam Dube, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Khaleel Ahmed, Rahul Tripathi, Vijay Shankar, Shaik Rasheed, Anshul Kamboj, Mukesh Choudhary, Deepak Hooda, Gurjapneet Singh, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Ramakrishna Ghosh, Shreyas Gopal, Vansh Bedi, C Andre Siddarth, Matheesha Pathirana, Noor Ahmad, Devon Conway, Rachin Ravindra, Nathan Ellis, Sam Curran, Jamie Overton
GUJARAT TITANS: Shubman Gill (captain), Mohammed Siraj, Washington Sundar, Prasidh Krishna, Mahipal Lomror, Sai Sudharsan, Kumar Kushagra, Nishant Sindhu, Manav Suthar, Anuj Rawat, Shahrukh Khan, Rahul Tewatia, Arshad Khan, Gurnoor Brar, Sai Kishore, Ishant Sharma, Jayant Yadav, Kulwant Khejroliya, Rashid Khan, Kagiso Rabada (South Africa), Gerald Coetzee (South Africa), Sherfane Rutherford, Glenn Phillips, Karim Janat, Jos Buttler
KOLKATA KNIGHT RIDERS: Ajinkya Rahane (captain), Venkatesh Iyer, Rinku Singh, Varun Chakravarthy, Harshit Rana, Ramandeep Singh, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Vaibhav Arora, Mayank Markande, Manish Pandey, Anukul Roy, Umran Malik, Lunith Sisodia, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Rovman Powell, Quinton de Kock (South Africa), Anrich Nortje (South Africa), Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Spencer Johnson, Moeen Ali
MUMBAI INDIANS: Hardik Pandya (captain), Rohit Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Tilak Varma, Naman Dhir, Robin Minz, Karn Sharma, Deepak Chahar, Ashwani Kumar, Krishnan Shrijith, Raj Bawa, Satyanarayana Raju, Arjun Tendulkar, Vignesh Puthur, Trent Boult, Mitchell Santner, Bevon-John Jacobs, Ryan Rickelton (South Africa), Corbin Bosch (South Africa), Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Will Jacks, Reece Topley.
SUNRISERS HYDERABAD: Pat Cummins (captain), Ishan Kishan, Mohammed Shami, Abhishek Sharma, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Harshal Patel, Rahul Chahar, Abhinav Manohar, Simarjeet Singh, Atharva Taide, Zeeshan Ansari, Jaydev Unadkat, Aniket Verma, Sachin Baby, Travis Head, Adam Zampa, Heinrich Klaasen (South Africa), Wiaan Mulder (South Africa), Kamindu Mendis, Eshan Malinga
DELHI CAPITALS: Axar Patel (captain), Kuldeep Yadav, Abishek Porel, KL Rahul, T Natarajan, Ashutosh Sharma, Mohit Sharma, Sameer Rizvi, Karun Nair, Mukesh Kumar, Darshan Nalkande, Vipraj Nigam, Ajay Mandal, Manvanth Kumar, Tripurana Vijay, Madhav Tiwari, Mitchell Starc, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Tristan Stubbs (South Africa), Faf du Plessis (South Africa), Donnovan Ferreira (South Africa), Dushmantha Chameera.
LUCKNOW SUPER GIANTS: Rishabh Pant (captain), Ayush Badoni, Mohsin Khan, Mayank Yadav, Ravi Bishnoi, Avesh Khan, Abdul Samad, Aryan Juyal, Akash Deep, Himmat Singh, Manimaran Siddharth, Digvesh Singh, Shahbaz Ahmed, Akash Singh, Prince Yadav, Raj Hangargekar, Arshin Kulkarni, Yuvraj Chaudhary, Nicholas Pooran, Shamar Joseph, Mitchell Marsh, Aiden Markram (South Africa), David Miller (South Africa), Matthew Breetzke (South Africa)
PUNJAB KINGS: Shreyas Iyer (captain), Arshdeep Singh, Yuzvendra Chahal, Prabhsimran Singh, Shashank Singh, Nehal Wadhera, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Yash Thakur, Harpreet Brar, Vishnu Vinod, Harnoor Singh, Kuldeep Sen, Priyansh Arya, Musheer Khan, Suryansh Shedge, Pyla Avinash, Pravin Dubey, Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis, Josh Inglis, Aaron Hardie, Xavier Bartlett, Marco Jansen (South Africa), Lockie Ferguson, Azmatullah Omarzai
RAJASTHAN ROYALS: Sanju Samson (captain), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Dhruv Jurel, Riyan Parag, Nitish Rana, Sandeep Sharma, Akash Madhwal, Kumar Kartikeya, Tushar Deshpande, Shubham Dubey, Yudhvir Singh Charak, Vaibhav Suryavanshi, Kunal Singh Rathore, Ashok Sharma, Shimron Hetmyer, Maheesh Theekshana, Wanindu Hasaranga, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Kwena Maphaka (South Africa), Jofra Archer
ROYAL CHALLENGERS BANGALORE: Rajat Patidar (captain), Virat Kohli, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Yash Dayal, Rasikh Salam, Suyash Sharma, Jitesh Sharma, Krunal Pandya, Swapnil Singh, Manoj Bhandage, Devdutt Padikkal, Swastik Chikkara, Abhinandan Singh, Mohit Rathee, Josh Hazlewood, Tim David, Romario Shepherd, Nuwan Thushara, Lungi Ngidi (South Africa), Liam Livingstone, Phil Salt, Jacob Bethell
How to watch
Apart from a dedicated 24-hour channel on Premium (SS Cricket), matches will be broadcast on Grandstand, supplemented by highlight packages for every match (available on Catch Up).
ALL HIGHLIGHTS AFTER THE GAME
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