IPL 2026: It’s getting bigger with 84 matches, but can it grip viewers?

The 19th edition of IPL, which gets underway on Saturday, 28 March with defending champions Royal Challengers Bengaluru taking on Sunrisers Hyderabad at home, will be certainly bigger — with 84 matches on schedule instead of 74 until last year. The question is: will it necessarily be better, as the two-month mega event tends to meander a bit at the halfway stage?   

The gap of less than three weeks between the T20 World Cup — which saw a fitting climax with the Men in Blue retaining it — and the IPL certainly makes for T20 overkill, but the number of matches had to be increased as part of a commitment to media partners during the renewal of media rights for the 2023-27 cycle.  

There are, of course, some ‘firsts’, such as a set of new rules for practice matches and net sessions to nullify any unfair ‘home advantage', a second home for RCB in Raipur and most importantly, a number of uncapped Indian players waiting to seize their opportunities.

We check out five aspects that one can look for in IPL 2026:

84 games in the season: The 2026 season marks a major increase in the number of games with 84 in total, 10 more than the usual 74 matches. The first 80 games will take place in the league stage with the remaining four in the play-offs. The BCCI, which had initially released the IPL schedule just for the first 20 days owing to Assembly elections in four states, released the full fixtures of league games on Thursday, 26 March.  

The second phase of the league, comprising 50 matches, will be played from 13 April to 24 May across 12 venues in India. Matches in the second phase will be held in Bengaluru, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Delhi, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Lucknow, Jaipur, Dharamshala, Raipur and New Chandigarh.

Samson, Jadeja in new colours: The much talked trade-off between Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals for senior allrounder Ravindra Jadeja and Sanju Samson, respectively, had been the biggest talking points ahead of the mini auction in December.

Samson, who had a forgettable IPL season last year with an injury and reported differences with the team management on the captaincy issue, is on a high after a Player of the Tournament show in last T20 World Cup. Jadeja, now 37 and nearing the end of his international career, has gone back to Royals where his journey started as a rookie under the late great Shane Warne, and can play a mentoring role for an young Pink Army.

The great CSK gamble: A conservative buyer at the best of times, CSK went into the auction with the second highest purse and stunned one and all by splashing Rs 14.2 crore each on uncapped players Kartik Sharma and Prashant Veer at the 2026 IPL auction. No other uncapped player has even fetched Rs 11 crore-plus at the auction, and it will be seen whether the investment has been worth it. Both Kartik and Prashant are under 21 and have never featured in IPL before. While Veer is a left-arm spinner allrounder, Kartik happens to be a dashing wicketkeeper-batter.

Can Green be neighbours’ envy?: There is always a great level of curiosity about whether overseas players can match up to their price tags in the IPL — and it’s going to be no different this year. Cameron Green, for whom KKR dished out an astounding Rs 25.20 crore to make him the highest ever paid overseas player as well as Rs 18 crore for the slingshot quickie Matheesha Pathirana (Sri Lanka) are two such players.

Green, who gets a chance to collaborate with assistant coach Shane Watson, may be used at the top of the order while he will also be required to bowl his full quota of four overs in view of the spate of injuries to KKR pace bowlers. There is, meanwhile, a question mark over the arrival of Pathirana – who has received the NOC from the Lankan board but is still on the mend from an injury.

Where to watch: Here’s a list of official broadcasters where one can watch IPL, depending on the countries they are residents of: India (Jio Hotstar & Star Sports); England (Sky Sports); Australia (Fox Cricket & Kayo Sports); New Zealand (Sky Sports); South Africa (SuperSport) & USA (Willow TV).