The 2026 season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) will start on March 28 with defending champions Royal Challengers Bengaluru taking on Sunrisers Hyderabad. The three-time champions Kolkata Knight Riders will kick-start their campaign against Mumbai Indians at Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium.
They will then host the 2016 champions Sunrisers Hyderabad on April 2 before taking on Punjab Kings on April 6 at home. Punjab Kings’ captain Shreyas Iyer will be up against his former team whom he led to the title. The PBKS too had a brilliant run under him last year and ended the edition as runners-up.
The Knight Riders will host Lucknow Super Giants on April 9 in this first phase which will take place till April 12.
The fans and experts were left surprised after Kolkata Knight Riders let go off Shreyas Iyer despite winning the cup under him.
🚨 News 🚨
Presenting the schedule for the first 20 matches of #TATAIPL 2026, to be played from March 28 to April 12, 2026 🗓️
Full schedule will be announced once poll dates are announced for three states set to undergo State Assembly elections.
More details ▶️… pic.twitter.com/8Iq492v8TE
— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) March 11, 2026
Kolkata Knight Riders Run in IPL 2025
The Kolkata Knight Riders had forgettable run in the IPL 2025 edition as they lost 7 matches out of the 14. They ended the campaign with 12 points and were placed at number 8 spot.
KKR retained only 12 players from their 2025 squad. KKR bought Australian all-rounder Cameron Green for Rs 25.20 crore after an intense bidding war with Chennai Super Kings, making him the most expensive overseas player in IPL history. They also acquired Sri Lankan fast bowler Matheesha Pathirana for Rs 18 crore and Mustafizur Rahman for Rs 9.20 crore, spending a total of Rs 63.85 crore in the IPL 2026 auction.
The Knight Riders had later released Mustafizur. Earlier, religious leaders in Ujjain had issued a stark warning to disrupt Indian Premier League (IPL) matches by damaging pitches if Mustafizur is allowed to participate. Recent incidents in Bangladesh had sparked widespread outrage.
The Knight Riders have a stable squad with Ajinkya Rahane, youngster Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Rinku Singh, TIm Seifert and Rachin Ravindra being one of the most sought after batters in the unit. Sunil Narine, Harshit Rana, Varun Cakravarthy and Vaibhav Arora will play a crucial role with the ball. The franchise also bought Sarthak Ranjan who produced a brilliant performance in the Delhi Premier League last year.
The IPL 2026 second phase schedule will be announced later.
SQUAD:
Ajinkya Rahane, Rinku Singh, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Manish Pandey, Rovman Powell, Sunil Narine, Ramandeep Singh, Anukul Roy, Varun Chakaravarthy, Harshit Rana, Vaibhav Arora, Umran Malik, Cameron Green, Finn Allen, Matheesha Pathirana, Tejasvi Singh, Kartik Tyagi, Prashant Solanki, Rahul Tripathi, Tim Seifert, Sarthak Ranjan, Daksh Kamra, Rachin Ravindra, Akash Deep
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