IPL 2023 will begin on March 31st, with defending titleholders Gujarat Titans taking on Chennai Super Kings in Ahmedabad, as the league returns to its traditional home-and-down format in India for the first time since 2019.
The finals are also to be held on May 28th, in Ahmedabad. The IPL is set to begin five days after the final of the initial Women’s Premier League on March 26th, and the opening weekend will have all ten teams in action after Gujrat Titans play CSK on Friday, Punjab Kings take on Kolkata Knight Riders in Mohali, and Lucknow Super Giants play Delhi Capital in Lucknow on Saturday (April 1); and Sunrisers Hyderabad take on Rajasthan Royals in Hyderabad, and Royal Challengers Bangalore play Mumbai Indians in Bengaluru on Sunday (April 2).
The schedule for the four playoff matches has not been blazoned yet, piecemeal from Ahmedabad being linked as the venue for the title clash. The teams have been divided into two groups like last season. Group A has Mumbai Indians, Kolkata Knight Riders, Rajasthan Royals, Delhi Capitals, and Super titans, while Group B has Chennai Super Kings, Royal Challengers Bangalore, Gujrat Titans, and Sunrisers Hyderabad. All teams will play five teams – four from their group and one from the other group – doubly, and four teams – the remaining from the other group – formerly. The league phase comprises 70 matches across 52 days from March 31st to May 21st, gauging 12 metropolises, and will feature 18 double-heads. In addition to the ten regular venues – Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Kolkata, Lucknow, Delhi, Ahmedabad, Jaipur and Mohali – some matches will be played in Guwahati, and Dharamsala.
There will be an aggregate of 18 double-heads during the league phase – every Saturday and Sunday. The two most successful teams in the history of the IPL, Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings, will meet twice, on April 8th and May 6th, with the second of those institutions the 1000th match in the IPL since its commencement in 2008. Super Kings, meanwhile, would be returning to their original home at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, or Chepauk, in Chennai. In 2020, the event had to be laid over from the March-May window to September-November and moved to the UAE because of the Covid-19 epidemic.
In 2021, there was an attempt to play in the Indian summer but a breach of the biosecure bubble led to the season being intruded into the interior, and the alternate half of the season proceeded in the UAE in September. In 2022, the event was played in the March-May window in India, but the entire league phase was played at venues in Mumbai and Pune, and the playoffs and final in Kolkata and Ahmedabad. Gujarat Titans won the IPL title in their debut season last time under the captaincy of Hardik Pandya, beating Rajasthan Royals in the finals in Ahmedabad.