2025 Indian Premier League

The 2025 Indian Premier League, also known as IPL 18 and branded as TATA IPL 2025, was the 18th edition of the Indian Premier League, a professional Twenty20 cricket league. The tournament featured 10 teams competing in 74 matches. It began on 22 March and was held across 13 venues before being suspended on 9 May due to the 2025 India–Pakistan crisis. The matches resumed from 17 May across six venues, with the final rescheduled from 25 May to 3 June.
The defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders were eliminated in the league stage. In the final, Royal Challengers Bengaluru defeated Punjab Kings by 6 runs to win their maiden title after 18 years. Sai Sudharsan and Prasidh Krishna of Gujarat Titans scored the most runs and took the most wickets respectively. Suryakumar Yadav of Mumbai Indians was awarded as the most valuable player of the tournament.

Background

The Indian Premier League is a professional Twenty20 cricket league held in India, organized by the Board of Control for Cricket in India. It is held annually since the first edition in 2008. Kolkata Knight Riders were the defending champions, having won their third title in the previous season after beating Sunrisers Hyderabad in the final.

Format

Each team played twice against the teams in their group and the team in the same row in the other group, and once against the remaining four teams in the other group. After the [|group stage], the top four teams, based on aggregate points, would advance to the [|playoffs]. In this stage, the top two teams compete with each other, as does the remaining two teams. While the winner of [|Qualifier 1] would directly qualify 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]. The winner of this subsequent Qualifier 2 match advanced to the final match.
The IPL Governing Council decided to keep the number of matches to 74 for this edition as it was in the previous three seasons to help the cricketers balance their workload; however, it will be increased to 84 from 2026 onwards with the return of the double round-robin format.

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

Rule changes

It was announced that the IPL will follow the International Cricket Council's Code of Conduct regulations used for Twenty20 International matches from 2025 onwards. The IPL had previously used its own Code of Conduct.

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 2025 edition set to take place from 14 March to 25 May. In January 2025, it was announced that the 2025 season would commence on 21 March to allow for a two-week gap after the 2025 ICC Champions Trophy final scheduled to take place on 9 March. This led to a clash with the 2025 Pakistan Super League taking place from 11 April to 25 May 2025, which was moved from its typical February–March window for the same reason.
The first two matches were confirmed by the BCCI on 13 February 2025, with the inaugural match being hosted at the Eden Gardens between the defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders and Royal Challengers Bengaluru on 22 March. The complete fixtures were announced on 16 February. It was announced that both Qualifier 1 and Eliminator would be played at the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium on 20 and 21 May, and that Qualifier 2 and final would be played at the Eden Gardens on 23 and 25 May, with the venue to host its third IPL final after 2013 and 2015.

Suspension and rescheduling

On 9 May 2025, the remaining matches were suspended due to the 2025 India–Pakistan crisis. The revised schedule was announced on 12 May, with the remaining matches resumed on 17 May and were held across six venues. On 20 May the playoff fixtures were confirmed with Qualifier 1 and Eliminator played in Maharaja Yadavindra Singh International Cricket Stadium on 29 and 30 May, and Qualifier 2 and final played at Narendra Modi Stadium on 1 and 3 June, with the venue hosting its third final after 2022 and 2023. The final was played on 3 June, just a week before the 2025 World Test Championship final scheduled for 11 June.

Marketing

The Tata Group renewed their contract as the title sponsors of the IPL for a tenure of 5 years for. The advertising campaign for the 2025 IPL consisted of 20 sponsors and 105 advertisers including – Dream11, Tata Motors, AngelOne, RuPay, CEAT and Wonder Cement.

Broadcasting

's Star Sports and Viacom18's JioCinema had initially acquired the satellite and digital broadcasting rights for the 2023–2027 IPL cycle respectively. In November 2024, the two companies merged to form JioStar. In February 2025, JioCinema and Disney+ Hotstar merged to form JioHotstar, which now holds the domestic digital broadcasting rights for the remainder of the 2023–2027 cycle.
In the opening weekend of three matches, Star Sports reported 253 million viewership, with a 39% increase in the average television viewership rating compared to last season, while JioHotstar reported 1.37 billion viewership, a 40% increase from last season. The final match reported a record-breaking 169 million viewership.

Teams

The same 10 teams from the previous season competed.

Group	Team	2024 performance	Head coach	Captain
A	Chennai Super Kings	5th	Stephen Fleming	MS Dhoni
A	Kolkata Knight Riders	Champions	Chandrakant Pandit	Ajinkya Rahane
A	Punjab Kings	9th	Ricky Ponting	Shreyas Iyer
A	Rajasthan Royals	3rd	Rahul Dravid	Sanju Samson
A	Royal Challengers Bengaluru	4th	Andy Flower	Rajat Patidar
B	Delhi Capitals	6th	Hemang Badani	Axar Patel
B	Gujarat Titans	8th	Ashish Nehra	Shubman Gill
B	Lucknow Super Giants	7th	Justin Langer	Rishabh Pant
B	Mumbai Indians	10th	Mahela Jayawardene	Hardik Pandya
B	Sunrisers Hyderabad	Runners-up	Daniel Vettori	Pat Cummins

Personnel changes

The franchises were required to submit their retention lists before 31 October 2024 and a total of 46 players were retained ahead of the auction. The auction was scheduled on 24 and 25 November 2024 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia with the auction purse for each franchise set at, highest in the history of IPL. A total of 1,574 players registered for the auction, of which 574 players were shortlisted to feature in the auction and 182 were sold in the auction. Rishabh Pant became the most expensive player in the history of IPL when he was bought by Lucknow Super Giants for, surpassing paid by Punjab Kings for Shreyas Iyer earlier in the same auction,. and paid by Kolkata Knight Riders for Mitchell Starc in the 2024 auction. Vaibhav Sooryavanshi became the youngest player sold in the IPL history at the age of 13 years, being bought by Rajasthan Royals for.
Following the suspension and rescheduling, it was announced that the franchises would be allowed to sign temporary replacement players in place of unavailable players as the rescheduled fixtures clashed with the international cricket calendar, notably West Indies tour of Ireland, West Indies tour of England and the World Test Championship final. These temporary replacement players would not be available for retention in the 2026 auction.

Venues

The league stage was played at 13 stadiums across India. The opening match was played at the Eden Gardens. The HPCA Cricket Stadium hosted one Punjab Kings home match, the ACA Cricket Stadium hosted two Rajasthan Royals matches, and the ACA–VDCA Cricket Stadium hosted two Delhi Capitals matches. The first two matches of the playoffs were originally scheduled to be played in the Rajiv Gandhi Cricket Stadium, with the Eden Gardens scheduled to host the final two matches. However, following the suspension and rescheduling, the remaining league stage matches were played across six venues, with the playoffs in Maharaja Yadavindra Singh Stadium and Narendra Modi Stadium.