BCCI announces IPL 2025 schedule

The schedule for IPL 2025, and surprisingly the seasons lying ahead, has been announced by the IPL governing council. With just a couple of days remaining for the IPL 2025 mega auction to hit the floors in Jeddah, the board revealed the schedule on Friday. The upcoming season is set to commence on March 14, with the final clash scheduled for May 25. IPL 2025 will feature 74 matches, the same as the last three seasons. However, in a welcome move, the boards of almost every full-member nation have cleared their players to be available throughout the league’s run until IPL 2027.

Schedule out for IPL 2025 ahead of the mega auction

Wavering past their previously noted move, the board has announced the schedule for IPL 2025 well in advance. However, the count of matches in the IPL 2025 schedule has been kept the same as IPL 2024, 74. The 84 matches listed by the council in 2022, when the media rights for IPL 2023-27 were sold, are still not launched into action. As per the proposed rights, IPL 2025 and 2026 would have featured 84 matches, 10 more than the previous seasons. Moreover, the count would have further charted to 94 from IPL 2027 onwards. As it currently stands, however, like IPL 2024 and the previous three seasons, IPL 2025 will feature only 74 matches.

The first match of IPL 2025 is scheduled for March 14, marking the onset of the 17th edition of the league. The ultimate clash, between the top two of the ten teams, is subsequently marked to unfold on May 25. Moreover, IPL 2026 will hit the floors on March 15, with the final anticipated for May 31. Lastly, the 2027 edition is scheduled from March 14 to May 30.

England confirms full availability of top players for ongoing IPL cycle 

In another significant update, the governing council has received confirmation on the availability of foreign players until the end of the cycle, that is, IPL 2027. Surprisingly, Cricket Australia has cleared all its centrally contracted players to mark a full attendance throughout the league’s run. Pakistan, obviously, is not on the list of boards, with their players having last played in the inaugural season of the league back in 2008. While the 2025 season is not listed to clash with any international fixtures, Pakistan and Australia have scheduled a three-match ODI series in the subsequent year. CA has noted that the white-ball series scheduled in March 2026 will be concluding “no later than March 18.”

Australian players involved in the series and those taking a break after the T20 World Cup, which is scheduled for February-March 2026, will join the IPL following their tour of Pakistan. In 2027, players participating in the historic one-off Test between Australia and England in March, marking 150 years of Test cricket, will join post-match. Meanwhile, the ECB has provided a list of 18 centrally contracted players who are committed to being fully available for the next three IPL seasons. Notably, England Test captain Ben Stokes is absent from this list. As per the new IPL guidelines, Stokes will not be able to register for the IPL 2026 mini-auction, having failed to do so in the IPL 2025 mega auction.

The list provided by the ECB includes prominent names such as Jofra Archer, Gus Atkinson, Jonny Bairstow, Harry Brook, Jos Buttler, and Phil Salt, among others. While some of these players’ contracts will end during the 2025-27 period, they will remain available for the IPL as long as their contracts are active. Additionally, England’s non-centrally contracted players are set to be fully available for the next three seasons.

Sri Lanka Cricket Board has assured the full availability of its players for the 2025 IPL season, with retained players being accessible for 2026 and 2027 as well. On the other hand, the Bangladesh Cricket Board has named 13 players with varying availability over the three-year period. Shakib Al Hasan, however, has confirmed his full availability for the seasons ahead, unlike the sporadic appearances anticipated by his compatriots. The likes of South Africa, New Zealand, West Indies, Afghanistan, and Zimbabwe have confirmed their full availability. Meanwhile, with the IPL 2025 mega auction scheduled for November 24 and 25, Jofra Archer has been a last-minute addition to the auction pool.