IPL 2018: Opening encounter and final date announced

2018 brings a new decade of the Indian Premier League (IPL) and like always there is enormous excitement surrounding the tournament. With the mega-auction scheduled for later this month, not just the franchises but even the fans are busy determining what set up their team should go in with. All the franchises have an option to hold on to a maximum of 3 players with the Right to Match (RTM) cards that can be used in the auction.

The hammer is slated to be slammed on January 27 and 28 in Bengaluru. But the itinerary for the tournament is still being speculated. While most predicted it will be pretty similar to that of the 2017 season, the commissioner of the IPL made the announcement about the date of the opening ceremony, the initial encounter as well as the final of IPL 2018 today.

Shukla, as quoted by ANI, said that the star-studded opening ceremony will be held in Mumbai on the 6th of April 2018 whereas the first match of the 11th edition of IPL will be played on 7th April also in Mumbai. The tournament will come to an end with the grand finale on 27th May and Mumbai will once again host the crucial fixture.

Opponents for the tournament opener

While the official confirmation on this matter is still awaited, reports suggest that as per the tradition, champions of the previous season Mumbai Indians will be involved in the tournament opener but since the runners-up Rising Pune Supergiant isn’t a part of the league anymore, Chennai Super Kings one of the two returning franchises will take their place.

Final list of 578

While over a thousand players had put their name up to be considered in the IPL auctions pool the franchises have collectively shown interest in almost half the number. Based on that, the Governing Council released a list of 578 players who will go under the hammer in the IPL 2018 auction.

Earlier, in the retention event, the eight teams opted to retain a total of 18 players and will pick the remaining players in the auction.

Catch up more updates on IPL 2018 and all the latest updates of cricketing world on https://crictracker.com/