Eden Gardens, the home ground of IPL 2024 champions Kolkata Knight Riders, will host both the tournament opener of IPL 2025 on 22 March and the final on 25 May. It will also host Qualifier 2 on 23 May.
This will be the first final in Kolkata in a decade, with Eden Gardens having previously hosted the 2013 and 2015 title matches.
The other two playoffs – Qualifier 1 on 20 May and the Eliminator on 21 May – will be played in Hyderabad, home of 2024 runners-up Sunrisers Hyderabad.
IPL 2025 will feature 74 matches spread over 65 days with 12 double-headers. The tournament opener will pit KKR against Royal Challengers Bengaluru in an evening match.
That will be followed by a double-header Sunday (23 March) with SRH hosting Rajasthan Royals followed by the IPL’s most celebrated rivalry, with Chennai Super Kings hosting Mumbai Indians in a clash between two five-times champions.
Royals, Delhi Capitals, Lucknow SuperGiants and Gujarat Titans will play three afternoon matches each, while the other seven teams will play two day matches each. Last year’s afternoon matches had started at 3.30 p.m. IST.
There are 13 venues listed in the schedule: The primary home bases of each of the 10 teams along with Guwahati (Royals’ second home venue), Visakhapatnam (Capitals’ second home venue), and Dharamsala (Punjab’s second home venue).
While Guwahati and Vizag will host two matches each, three matches will be played in Dharamsala.
While Punjab have usually played two games per season at the picturesque HPCA Stadium in Dharamsala, the IPL has scheduled an extra game at the venue this season, with Capitals, Mumbai and LSG listed as Punjab’s opponents.
These three matches will be played from 4 to 11 May, which means Punjab are the only team to have a stretch of three back-to-back home matches.
While several teams will be busy playing back-to-back matches with breaks of one or two days, no team will be on the road for three consecutive away matches.
As has been the case in every season since the IPL expanded to ten teams in 2022, the teams have been split into two groups, with KKR, RCB, Royals, CSK and Punjab in one group and SRH, Capitals, Titans, Mumbai, and LSG in the other.
Teams will meet the other teams in their group and one team in the other group – determined by seeding – twice, and the other four teams in the opposite group once.
CSK and Mumbai, for instance, will meet twice despite not being part of the same group.
After their 23 March contest, these two teams will meet again on 20 April, again on a Sunday evening, with Mumbai hosting Super Kings at the Wankhede Stadium.
Four teams – RCB, Mumbai, Punjab, and LSG – will all play their opening match away, and only play their respective first home matches in April.
RCB, who scripted a miraculous return to form to make the playoffs last year with six consecutive wins after winning just one of their first eight matches, will end their league season with a sustained spell of home games: four of their last six matches will be at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium.
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