The 2026 Indian Premier League, also known as IPL 19 and branded as TATA IPL 2026, was the 19th edition of the Indian Premier League, a professional Twenty20 cricket league. The tournament featured 10 teams competing in 74 matches from 28 March to 31 May across 13 venues.
Defending champions Royal Challengers Bengaluru defeated Gujarat Titans by 5 wickets in the final to secure their second consecutive IPL title. They became the first franchise to win the IPL and the Women's Premier League in the same year. Vaibhav Sooryavanshi of Rajasthan Royals scored the most runs (776) while Kagiso Rabada of Gujarat took the most wickets (29). Sooryavanshi was also named the most valuable player of the tournament.
Background The Indian Premier League (IPL) is a professional Twenty20 (T20) cricket league, organised by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). It has been held annually since the first edition in 2008. Royal Challengers Bengaluru were the defending champions, having won their maiden title in the previous season after defeating Punjab Kings in the final.
Format Each team played once against the teams in their group and twice against the teams in the other group. After the group stage, the top four teams, based on aggregate points, advanced to the playoffs. In this stage, the top two teams competed with each other (in a match titled "Qualifier 1"), as did the remaining two teams (in a match titled "Eliminator"). While the winner of the Qualifier 1 directly qualified for the final match, the losing team had another chance to qualify for the final match by competing against the winning team of the Eliminator (in a match titled "Qualifier 2"). The winner of this subsequent Qualifier 2 advanced to the final match. Teams were seeded into groups based on the number of titles they had won.
The IPL Governing Council had initially announced that the IPL would expand to 84 matches for 2026 and 2027, with it expected to expand to 94 matches from 2028 onwards with the return of the complete double round-robin format that was used until 2021. However, the number of matches was kept as 74 for one more edition as it was in the previous four seasons.
Group A Group B Chennai Super Kings Mumbai Indians Kolkata Knight Riders Sunrisers Hyderabad Rajasthan Royals Gujarat Titans Royal Challengers Bengaluru Delhi Capitals Punjab Kings Lucknow Super Giants
Schedule According to ESPNcricinfo, the dates of the tournament window for the three seasons between 2025 and 2027 were sent to franchises ahead of the 2025 auction. In November 2024, the tentative dates for the three seasons were announced, with the 2026 edition set to take place from 15 March to 31 May. In December 2025, it was announced that the 2026 season would commence on 26 March to allow for a three-week gap after the 2026 Men's T20 World Cup final scheduled to take place on 8 March. In February 2026, it was announced that the 2026 season would commence 2 days later on 28 March. This led to a clash with the 2026 Pakistan Super League for the second consecutive year taking place from 26 March to 3 May 2026, which was again moved from its typical February–March window for the same reason.
In March 2026, it was announced that the fixtures for that season would be announced in two parts due to the state assembly elections in Assam, Tamil Nadu, and West Bengal; for which the dates were not announced till 15 March. The first part of the schedule comprising the first twenty matches was announced on 11 March, with the inaugural match being hosted at M. Chinnaswamy Stadium between the defending champions Royal Challengers Bengaluru and Sunrisers Hyderabad on 28 March. The complete fixtures for the league stage were announced on 26 March. On 6 May the playoff fixtures were confirmed with the Qualifier 1 at HPCA Cricket Stadium on 26 May, the Eliminator and Qualifier 2 at Maharaja Yadavindra Singh Stadium on 27 and 29 May, and the final at Narendra Modi Stadium on 31 May, with the venue hosting its fourth final after 2022, 2023 and 2025.
Exclusion of Mustafizur Rahman
Bangladeshi fast bowler Mustafizur Rahman was bought by Kolkata Knight Riders for in the auction. Following anti-Hindu violence in Bangladesh during 2025 and the lynching of Dipu Chandra Das in December 2025, there were calls for the exclusion of Bangladeshi players from the IPL. In January 2026, the BCCI requested that the franchise release Rahman from the squad and permitted them to select a replacement player. This move was criticized by former Indian cricketer Madan Lal, Congress politician Shashi Tharoor, and former Bangladeshi captains Khaled Mahmud and Mohammad Ashraful while former Indian cricketer Aakash Chopra and BJP politician Sangeet Singh Som defended the BCCI's move.
This led the BCCI to put the Indian tour of Bangladesh on hold due to tensions. Furthermore, the Bangladesh Cricket Board requested the International Cricket Council (ICC) to shift their matches at the 2026 Men's T20 World Cup which was to be co-hosted by India and Sri Lanka, out of India, similar to that of Pakistan's. But the request was rejected by the ICC, and Bangladesh ultimately withdrew from the T20 World Cup. The Bangladeshi government also banned the broadcast of IPL in their country. Following the 2026 Bangladeshi general election, the newly elected government clarified that the broadcast of the IPL is not banned in their country anymore.
Marketing The Tata Group renewed their contract as the title sponsors of the IPL for a tenure of 5 years (2024–2028) for . The advertising campaign for the 2026 IPL consisted of 27 sponsors including – Google AI Mode, Campa Energy, Havells & Lloyd, Birla Opus, Hero MotoCorp and Amazon.
Broadcasting JioStar's Star Sports and JioHotstar, held the television and digital rights respectively, for the remainder of the 2023–2027 cycle. In the opening weekend of the season which included two matches, linear television reported 7.84 million viewership, with an 18.8% drop in the average television viewership rating compared to last season, while JioHotstar reported 515 million viewership, with a 26% increase in total watch time to 32.6 billion minutes.
Teams
The same 10 teams from the previous season returned. Group Team 2025 performance Head coach Captain A Chennai Super Kings Stephen Fleming Ruturaj Gaikwad Kolkata Knight Riders Abhishek Nayar Ajinkya Rahane Punjab Kings Ricky Ponting Shreyas Iyer Rajasthan Royals Kumar Sangakkara Riyan Parag Royal Challengers Bengaluru Andy Flower Rajat Patidar B Delhi Capitals Hemang Badani Axar Patel Gujarat Titans Ashish Nehra Shubman Gill Lucknow Super Giants Justin Langer Rishabh Pant Mumbai Indians Mahela Jayawardene Hardik Pandya Sunrisers Hyderabad Daniel Vettori Pat Cummins
Personnel changes
The franchises were required to submit their retention lists before 15 November 2025, and a total of 173 players were retained ahead of the auction. The auction was held on 16 December 2025 in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates with the auction purse for each franchise set at . A total of 1,355 players registered for the auction, of which 369 players were shortlisted and 156 were featured in the auction and 77 were sold in the auction. Cameron Green became the most expensive overseas player and the third most expensive player in the history of the IPL when he was bought by Kolkata for . Prashant Veer and Kartik Sharma became the joint-most expensive uncapped players in the history of the IPL when they were both bought by Chennai Super Kings for each. The 79 unsold players included players such as Jake Fraser-McGurk, Jonny Bairstow, Daryl Mitchell, Devon Conway, Alzarri Joseph, Gus Atkinson, Deepak Hooda and Karn Sharma.
Venues The league stage was played at 13 stadiums across India. 12 venues from the previous season returned as respective home grounds with HPCA Cricket Stadium and ACA Cricket Stadium as secondary home venues for three Punjab Kings matches and three Rajasthan Royals matches respectively. ACA–VDCA Cricket Stadium was dropped as Delhi Capitals secondary home venue while Shaheed Veer Narayan Singh Stadium which had previously served as secondary home venue for Delhi Daredevils until 2016, was added as secondary home venue for two Royal Challengers Bengaluru matches. The opening match was played at M. Chinnaswamy Stadium. The playoffs were played at HPCA Cricket Stadium and Maharaja Yadavindra Singh Stadium with the final at Narendra Modi Stadium.
Ahmedabad Bengaluru Chennai Delhi Dharamshala Gujarat Titans Royal Challengers Bengaluru Chennai Super Kings Delhi Capitals Punjab Kings Narendra Modi Stadium M. Chinnaswamy Stadium M. A. Chidambaram Stadium Arun Jaitley Stadium HPCA Cricket Stadium Capacity: 132,000 Capacity: 40,000 Capacity: 39,000 Capacity: 35,200 Capacity: 21,200 Guwahati Hyderabad Rajasthan Royals Sunrisers Hyderabad ACA Cricket Stadium Rajiv Gandhi Stadium Capacity: 46,000 Capacity: 55,000 Jaipur Kolkata Rajasthan Royals Kolkata Knight Riders Sawai Mansingh Stadium Eden Gardens Capacity: 30,000 Capacity: 68,000 Lucknow Mullanpur Mumbai Raipur Lucknow Super Giants Punjab Kings Mumbai Indians Royal Challengers Bengaluru Ekana Cricket Stadium Maharaja Yadavindra Singh Stadium Wankhede Stadium Shaheed Veer Narayan Singh Stadium Capacity: 50,000 Capacity: 38,000 Capacity: 33,108 Capacity: 65,000
League stage Points table
Match summary
Fixtures
Playoffs
Bracket
Sources: ESPNcricinfo
Qualifier 1
Eliminator
Qualifier 2
Final
Statistics and awards
+ Most runs Runs Player Team 776 Vaibhav Sooryavanshi Rajasthan Royals 732 Shubman Gill Gujarat Titans 722 Sai Sudharsan Gujarat Titans 675 Virat Kohli Royal Challengers Bengaluru 624 Heinrich Klaasen Sunrisers Hyderabad + Most wickets Wickets Player Team 29 Kagiso Rabada Gujarat Titans 28 Bhuvneshwar Kumar Royal Challengers Bengaluru 25 Jofra Archer Rajasthan Royals 21 Rashid Khan Gujarat Titans Anshul Kamboj Chennai Super Kings + Most valuable player Points Player Team 436.5 Vaibhav Sooryavanshi Rajasthan Royals 427.0 Kagiso Rabada Gujarat Titans 396.5 Jofra Archer Rajasthan Royals 379.5 Bhuvneshwar Kumar Royal Challengers Bengaluru 369.5 Shubman Gill Gujarat Titans
End of season awards + End of season awards Award Prize Player Team Most Valuable Player and trophy Vaibhav Sooryavanshi Rajasthan Royals Orange Cap (most runs) Vaibhav Sooryavanshi Rajasthan Royals Purple Cap (most wickets) Kagiso Rabada Gujarat Titans Emerging player of the season and trophy Vaibhav Sooryavanshi Rajasthan Royals Most fours and trophy Sai Sudharsan Gujarat Titans Most sixes and trophy Vaibhav Sooryavanshi Rajasthan Royals Most dot balls and trophy Mohammed Siraj Gujarat Titans Highest batting strike rate , trophy and a car Vaibhav Sooryavanshi Rajasthan Royals Catch of the season and trophy Manish Pandey Kolkata Knight Riders Best pitch Eden Gardens, Kolkata Team fairplay award Punjab Kings Runners-up and runners-up shield Gujarat Titans Champions and IPL trophy Royal Challengers Bengaluru
See also
2026 Women's Premier League (cricket) 2026 Women's Premier League (cricket) final
References
General references
External links