Indian Premier League 2026 Begins With RCB vs SRH as BCCI Announces Full Schedule

The BCCI on Wednesday released the schedule for the opening phase of the TATA IPL 2026, with 20 matches spread across 10 venues between March 28 and April 12. The full tournament calendar will be confirmed once election dates are finalised for the three states facing Assembly polls during that window.

Defending champions Royal Challengers Bengaluru open the 19th edition of the tournament at home against Sunrisers Hyderabad on March 28 at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium. There is, however, a caveat — the fixture is subject to clearance from the Karnataka government’s Expert Committee, which is due to inspect the ground on March 13 and run a full mock demonstration of match-day arrangements before giving the stadium the green light.

The day after, the Mumbai Indians host the Kolkata Knight Riders at the Wankhede in what is always one of the season’s most-watched fixtures. Two of the most decorated franchises in the competition’s history, with five titles apiece between them, going at it on the second night of the tournament is the kind of scheduling that sets the tone early.

This year’s IPL is expected to run to 84 matches in total, ten more than last season,  with all ten teams playing each other twice in a double round-robin format. The top four sides at the end of the group stage advance to the playoffs, where the top two meet in Qualifier 1, and the third and fourth-placed teams go into an Eliminator, eventually whittling down to a final.

IPL 2026 First Phase — Full Fixture List

Early Fixtures Worth Watching

March 30 brings one of the more charged matchups of the opening stretch, when Chennai Super Kings travel to Guwahati to face Rajasthan Royals. A pre-season trade sent Ravindra Jadeja to Rajasthan while Sanju Samson — who was named Player of the Tournament at the recent T20 World Cup — moved the other way to Chennai. Both players face their former clubs on the same night, in front of a Guwahati crowd that will be seeing top-flight IPL cricket for the first time this season.

The first double-header of the year falls on April 4. Delhi Capitals host Mumbai Indians in the afternoon at the Arun Jaitley Stadium, and then in the evening, Gujarat Titans take on Rajasthan Royals at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. Three more double-headers follow across the phase, giving fans back-to-back cricket on four separate days before the schedule breaks for the election period.

Punjab Kings open their home campaign at the PCA Stadium in New Chandigarh, where they will play four matches before shifting to Dharamshala later in the season. Rajasthan Royals, meanwhile, use Guwahati as their early base — hosting three matches there, including the CSK clash — before returning to their home ground in Jaipur for the back half of the season. RCB split their home fixtures between Bengaluru and Raipur.

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How the Season Is Shaping Up

With the expanded format bringing in ten additional matches, the 2026 season is the biggest in the tournament’s history by volume. Every team plays every other team twice during the group stage, which removes some of the variance that came with the previous format and should, in theory, give a clearer picture of which sides are genuinely the strongest by the time the playoffs arrive.

RCB come in as defending champions after their title win last season, though the competition this year looks as deep as it has in recent memory. Mumbai Indians and KKR, meeting on opening weekend, are always among the contenders. Chennai, even without Jadeja, carry enough experience to be dangerous. And Rajasthan, with Samson now leading the line and a squad built around him, will be one of the teams to watch across the full campaign.

The second phase of the schedule — covering the remaining 64 matches — will be confirmed once the Election Commission announces poll dates for the relevant states.

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