The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) released the official IPL 2023 schedule on Friday evening, and the16th season of the Indian PremierLeague (IPL) is scheduled to start on March 31.
The 10 participating teams in this season will fight for the famous IPL trophy over the course of a 74-match schedule, with the curtain-raiser on March 31 at the Narendra Modi Stadium with the defending champion Gujarat Titans taking on the Chennai Super Kings.
The Gujarat Titans, who won the championship last year on their first attempt, will want to retain it in the forthcoming competition.
However, they will face a stern test this time around with big dogs Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings looking to make amends for their woeful season after a strong IPL mini-auction.
The league stage, that concludes on May 21, will see 70 games being played including 18 double headers. The tournament returns to its familiar home and away format with all ten teams scheduled to play seven games at their home venue and seven away.
12 venues are set to host the league stage as Punjab Kings and Rajasthan Royals are scheduled to play two home games each in Dharamshala and Guwahati respectively.
The last time the entire tournament was staged in its traditional home and away format was in 2019.
The 2020 edition was completely held in the UAE and the 2021 edition in India had to be abruptly halted as a result of Covid-19 with the second half of the season being held in the UAE again.
While the IPL last year was held in India, the tournament was restricted to a limited number of venues with Mumbai and Pune hosting the entire league stage.
While the final will be played on May 28, the venues and the schedule for the playoffs will be announced later.
