India Premier League (IPL) 2021: Schedule, Team, Time Table, Ranking & Winning Prediction

Photo: ICC

What is IPL?

The Indian Premier League (IPL) is a professional Twenty20 cricket league in India usually contested between March and May of every year by eight teams representing eight different cities or states in India. The league was founded by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) in 2007.

The IPL has an exclusive window in ICC Future Tours Programme. The IPL is the most-attended cricket league in the world and in 2014 ranked sixth by average attendance among all sports leagues. In 2010, the IPL became the first sporting event in the world to be broadcast live on YouTube.

Currently, with eight teams, each team plays each other twice in a home-and-away round-robin format in the league phase. At the conclusion of the league stage, the top four teams will qualify for the playoffs. The top two teams from the league phase will play against each other in the first Qualifying match, with the winner going straight to the IPL final and the loser getting another chance to qualify for the IPL final by playing the second Qualifying match.

Meanwhile, the third and fourth place teams from the league phase play against each other in an eliminator match and the winner from that match will play the loser from the first Qualifying match. The winner of the second Qualifying match will move onto the final to play the winner of the first Qualifying match in the IPL Final match, where the winner will be crowned the Indian Premier League champions.

Below is the list of IPL winners over the past seasons:

50% of fans in the stadium will be allowed

The good news coming in from the quarters of the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports is that the government has decided to allow entry of 50% of fans in the stadium for IPL and other sporting events in the country. The news should be welcomed by the Board of Cricket Control of India (BCCI) and IPL fans as IPL 2020 in UAE was played without the fans in the stadiums.

As per the latest set of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) issued by the Sports Ministry, 50 percent attendance at stadia has been permitted along with the stipulation of a COVID-19 task force being set up by tournament organizing committees and in the BCCI’s case IPL Governing Council. The IPL GC and BCCI will have to follow the below guidelines set by the ministry for fans' entry in the stadiums.

Photo: India.com

Will it be mega auctions or mini auctions?

It is final now that no mega auction will be conducted for the 14th edition of IPL (IPL 2021). Instead, BCCI will conduct the mini-auctions. The full-fledged mega-player auctions will now be conducted for IPL 2022 once the two new teams are on board next year.

‘Full auction will not be possible this time because of time constraints and other issues. Rather we will conduct mini-auctions where franchises can bid for a few new players. The dates of the auctions and other things are still to be decided’, a BCCI official told InsideSport.

According to the information coming in from various BCCI officials – the mini-auction for IPL 2021 will be conducted sometime in February. India’s domestic T20 tournament Syed Mushtaq Ali will be conducted from 10th Jan to 31st. The tournament will be a window for IPL franchises to gauge the performances of the domestic hopefuls and recruit new talent in their teams.

Once BCCI and IPL Governing Council formally approves the date of Mini-Auctions, franchises will start the process of retaining or releasing the players from their squads. Some of the players who may not be retained by the IPL franchises includes the likes of Glenn Maxwell (KXIP), Kedar Jadhav (CSK), Dinesh Karthik (KKR), Jaydev Unadkat (RR), Imran Tahir (CSK), Kuldeep Yadav (KKR), Sheldon Cottrell (KXIP) and few others.

IPL 2021 Schedule

IPL 2021 has been scheduled tentatively between 11 April 2021 and 6 June 2021. IPL season 14 opening match likely to be played on 11 April 2021 between Mumbai Indians and Delhi Capital. IPL 2021 Final could be played on 6 June 2021, according to ICS.

There is a total of 60 matches that will be played in IPL 2021. IPL Governing Council (IGC) was planning to add 2 more IPL teams before IPL 2021 auction, but now as BCCI decided you will see 10 teams playing in IPL 2022. In case 2 more new teams added numbers of league match will increase. Also, Overseas player’s quota rule could be changed to increase from 4 to 5 in IPL 2021. BCCI has called the annual general meeting on 24 December 2020 to take a decision on new IPL teams, Auction Date, Schedule and India team series and other agendas.

Photo: DNA India

IPL 2021 Teams

If there is no Auction before IPL 2021 then the same IPL team squad will also play in IPL 2021. Here is the tentative IPL 2021 teams and squad. According to The Hindu, IPL 2021 may still be an eight-team tournament, with the familiar round-robin league followed by the Playoffs. The eight teams includes:

CHENNAI SUPER KINGS

DELHI CAPITALS

ROYAL CHALLENGERS BANGALORE

KOLKATA KNIGHT RIDERS

MUMBAI INDIANS

SUNRISERS HYDERABAD

KINGS XI PUNJAB

RAJASTHAN ROYALS

IPL 2021 Venue

Due to the COVID-19 situation in India, IPL 2020 was shifted to UAE but IPL 2021 supposed to be played in India only. If COVID cases in India surges during IPL 2021 can also shift to the UAE. UAE and India Cricket control team signed an agreement to play cricket series in UAE.

Prediction on IPL 2021 winners

Everyone is eager to know about their coming year, so before the start of the IPL match, many predictions are made as to which team will be the winner in the IPL in the year 2021 and which team will be the most dominant. It is definitely very difficult to assess, according to Marchedufilm.

According to astrological predictions, the year 2021 is bringing a special opportunity for all the teams. In an IPL match, it would not be right to call any teak weak. But still, if we look, according to astrology, if we talk about the possibilities, then there are some teams in the IPL who can win this title this year. These teams can be considered as strong contenders for the title of the year 2021.

Many predictions are being made at the moment. In IPL 2020, Mumbai Indians have won the title for the record 5th time by beating Delhi Capitals in the final. Rohit Sharma’s army presented their batting, bowling and fielding skills well and said that Which are the best ticks when it comes to IPL.

This has been a difficult time for the second and Chennai Super Kings and RCB. Virat’s team reached the playoffs but this year too they could not win the IPL title. Chennai Point finished 7th in the table and failed to reach the playoffs for the first time. It is being predicted that Mumbai Dandians may become IPL winners again in the year 2021.

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