Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings will extend their rivalry from last year’s final in the 2020 IPL opener at the Wankhede Stadium on March 29. While the itinerary is not announced officially, the schedule has been sent to the IPL franchises and the broadcaster and contains the fixtures for the 56-match long league stage. The last game of the league stage will be played between Royal Challengers Bangalore and Mumbai in Bengaluru on May 17.
The schedule for the play-offs will be released later, although, the final is scheduled to be held on May 24 in Mumbai.
The league phase contains five double-headers. For the first time, there will be none of them on Saturdays. Leading to this development, six days have been added to this year’s league phase in comparison to the 44-day long league phase last year. Except the first and the last week of the league phase, there will be a double-header every Sunday. The five afternoon games will begin at 4 PM IST while all the evening games will start at 8 PM IST. Earlier, the IPL were pondering over an early start for the evening games post reservations from host broadcaster, Star Sports but decided to stick with usual timings.
Rajasthan Royals remain the only franchise to list out a second probable home venue - Guwahati - and could host two of their games 14 league games in the north-eastern city.
South Africa’s three-match ODI series will be India’s last international assignment before the 13th edition of the tournament. The ODI series against South Africa will end on March 18 in Kolkata, only 11 days before the 2020 IPL opener.