Kolkata, Feb 16 IPL 2025 will kick off on March 22 at Eden Gardens with defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) clashing. The second qualifier will be played in Kolkata on May 23 and the final on May 25. Earlier, the final has been played here in 2013 and 2015 as well.
The first qualifier and eliminator will be played in Hyderabad on May 20 and 21. A double header will be played on Sunday, March 23, the day after the start of the IPL on Saturday. Where Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) will host Rajasthan Royals (RR) and Chennai Super Kings (CSK) will host Mumbai Indians (MI).
74 matches will be played in IPL 2025 and the league will be played for a total of 65 days. There will be 12 double headers throughout the season. RR, Delhi Capitals (DC), Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) and Gujarat Titans (GT) are scheduled to play three matches each in the afternoon. The other seven teams will play two matches each in the afternoon. Last year, the afternoon matches started at 3:30 pm. The names of 13 grounds have been revealed in the schedule, which includes the main home grounds of all 10 teams as well as Guwahati, Visakhapatnam and Dharamsala.
Guwahati will be the second home ground for RR, Visakhapatnam for DC and Dharamsala for Punjab Kings (PBKS). Guwahati and Visakhapatnam will play two matches each, while Dharamsala will host three matches. PBKS usually plays two matches every season in Dharamsala, but this time IPL has scheduled an additional match at this ground. DC, MI and LSG will play matches against Punjab at this ground. The matches are scheduled to be played between May 4 and 11 and PBKS will be the only team to get the chance to play three consecutive home matches.
