IPL 2018: Full schedule and venues of the upcoming season

The eleventh season of the Indian Premier League (IPL)  is knocking on the door. There will be eight participating teams which will be fighting to claim the championship, scheduled for approximately eight weeks. The formalities started with the retention ceremony which was staged back in December. Thereafter, the auction took place in Bangalore where several players went down the hammer.

While many of them bagged lucrative deals, some of them return empty-handed after remaining unsold. A total of 169 players were brought and a whopping 431.7 crores were exhausted by the franchises over the period of two days. Recently, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has released the itinerary for the upcoming edition.

Opportunity for Delhi, Punjab, and Bangalore

The Chennai Super Kings and the Mumbai Indians will be pitted against each other in the opening game of the event at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. Meanwhile, CSK and Rajasthan Royals will be making a comeback replacing the Rising Pune Supergiant and the Gujarat Lions, who played the previous two seasons. However, Rajasthan Royals have been jolted with a body blow by Steve Smith’s suspension.

Meanwhile, Kings XI Punjab, Royal Challengers Bangalore and the Delhi Daredevils would strain every muscle and end their trophy drought. Mumbai Indians are the defending champions and they have retained Rohit Sharma as their leader who would captain the side during the season. RCB ended as the cellar dweller last season and would be looking to turn their fortunes around.

Kolkata Knight Riders have been dealing with some injury concerns ahead of the event and would want the issues to be resolved at the earliest. Apart from the opening game, the Qualifier and the Final would also be played in Mumbai. The tournament will start on April 7 and will carry on till May 27.

Here is the full schedule