The dates for the next three IPL seasons have been revealed in an unprecedented approach.
The Indian Premier League (IPL) will begin play on March 14 of next year, with the championship match scheduled for May 25, according to a report released by news sources on Friday. In an unprecedented step, the dates for the upcoming three seasons have been made public. The 2026 and 2027 seasons will take place from March 15 to May 31 and March 14 to May 30, respectively. The IPL referred to these tournament dates as windows in a Thursday email to the franchise that ESPNCricinfo was able to view, but they are also probably going to be the final dates. Like the previous three iterations, the 2025 season will consist of 74 matches.
The IPL indicated 84 matches in 2022 when media rights were sold for the 2023–2027 cycle; this is 10 fewer matches than that number. Each season’s match count was different, with the IPL listing 74 games for 2023 and 2024, 84 for 2025 and 2026, and a maximum of 94 games in 2027 in the tender document for the current rights cycle.
In a significant boost to teams, the boards of major Test-playing nations have approved the inclusion of their overseas players in the upcoming three seasons of the IPL. The only exception is Pakistan, whose players have not participated in the IPL since the first season in 2008 because of political tensions between the two countries.According to the email, these are the countries where international players will be available for the upcoming three IPL seasons:
Australia: All of Cricket Australia’s top domestic and international players are permitted to play in the IPL starting next year. Australia and Pakistan will face off in a three-match ODI series in 2026 that “concludes no later than March 18”. The players who are participating in that series and those who are taking a break following the February–March 2026 T20 World Cup will join the IPL following the Pakistan trip. Australian players who play in a special match against England in March 2027 to commemorate 150 years of Test cricket will then join the IPL.England: Ben Stokes, a star all-rounder who did not sign up for this year’s super auction, is not on the list of 18 centrally contracted players that the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) has filed but who will be available for the upcoming three seasons.
Gus Atkinson, Jonny Bairstow, Jacob Bethell, Harry Brook, Jos Buttler, Brydon Carse, Zak Crawley, Sam Curran, Ben Duckett, Will Jacks, Liam Livingstone, Ollie Pope, Matthew Potts, Adil Rashid, Phil Salt, Olly Stone, and Reece Topley were among the players on the roster.
Some of these players will be “out of contract” at some point during the 2025–2027 timeframe, according to the ECB, but they will still be permitted to play in the IPL while they are under contract. For the upcoming three seasons, all players without central contracts will be free to choose.
Players from Afghanistan, Zimbabwe, New Zealand, South Africa, and the West Indies will all be available for the upcoming three seasons.
Sri Lanka: All of its players will be available for the 2025 season, according to Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC), and those who were retained for the 2026 and 2027 seasons will also be available.
Bangladesh: Taskin Ahmed, Litton Kumar Das, Mahedi Hasan, Shakib Al Hasan, Rishad Hossain, Towhid Hridoy, Shoriful Islam, Shohidul Islam, Hasan Mahmud, Mehidy Hasan Miraz, Mustafizur Rahman, Nahid Rana, and Tanzim Hasan Sakib are among the 13 players on the list that the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) sent. These players may be available for different lengths of time over the next three years.
