IPL 2021: All you need to know about the 14th edition of the tournament

The Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021 kicks off with defending champions Mumbai Indians (MI) taking on Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in the season opener on April 9. Here is all you need to know about the 14th edition of IPL.

What is IPL?

The IPL is a T20 franchise tournament, played in India, presently consisting of eight teams. There will be 60 matches played in IPL 2021, across six different venues between April 9 and May 30.

What are the venues for this edition?

Keeping in mind the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, the BCCI has restricted the matches to six venues – the Wankhede Stadium (Mumbai), Chepauk Stadium (Chennai), M Chinnaswamy Stadium (Bangalore), Arun Jaitley Stadium (Delhi), Eden Gardens (Kolkata) and the Narendra Modi Stadium (Ahmedabad). Furthermore, no team will have home advantage as all the matches will be played at neutral venues.

Have any IPL 2021 cricketers tested positive for COVID-19?A few cricketers like Devdutt Padikkal (RCB), Nitish Rana (KKR), Axar Patel (DC) had tested positive for the coronavirus ahead of IPL 2021. You can read all about it here.

What is the format of IPL 2021?

There will be 56 league matches with all eight teams playing each other in a round-robin format.  Two qualifiers, one eliminator and then the final will follow the league phase.

Which venue will host the IPL 2021 final?

The largest stadium in the world, the Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad will host the IPL 2021 final for the first time.

How are the final two teams decided?

The teams that finish in the top four places in the table, qualify for the playoffs. 1 vs 2 will play the first qualifier, followed by the Eliminator between the third and fourth placed teams. The winner of the first qualifier will move to the final directly, while the losing team will face the winner of the eliminator in Qualifier 2. The winner of that match will then meet the winner of Qualifier 1 in the final.

Any new rules introduced for IPL 2021?

The BCCI has decided to do away with ‘soft signal’ which created quite a stir during the India vs England series. The decision to determine whether the catch has been completed cleanly, whether it was a bump ball or if the batsman wilfully obstructed the field will be decided only by the third umpire and the on-field umpires will have no say in it. 

The bowling teams are also required to compulsorily finish their in the stipulated 90-minute period. Initially, the rule stated that the 20th over should begin within the 90th minute of the innings. If the team breaches this rule, the captain will be fined INR 12 lakh for the first offence. For the second offence, the captain will be fined INR 24 lakh and each team member will be fined INR 6 lakh or 25 percent of his match fee, whichever is lesser.

For the third offence, the skipper will be fined INR 30 lakh and will be banned from one IPL match. Also, each member of his team will be fined INR 12 lakh or 50 percent of his match fee, whichever is lesser.

How many overseas players will be allowed to feature in the XI?

Like every other season, four overseas players will be allowed to feature in the IPL 2021.

Who were the top three highest bid players in the IPL 2021 auction?

South Africa all-rounder Chris Morris broke the record for the highest bid player in an IPL auction when Rajasthan Royals (RR) procured his services for INR 16.26 crore, beating the feat held by Yuvraj Singh, who was purchased by Delhi for INR 16 crore ahead of IPL 2015.

Kyle Jamieson and Glenn Maxwell were picked up by Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) for INR 15 crore and 14.25 crore. Chennai Super Kings (CSK) bought Krishnappa Gowtham for INR 9.25 crore making him the most expensive uncapped player in IPL auctions.

Read how each franchise fared in the IPL 2021 auction here

What has been the best finish in IPL for each participating team?

Mumbai Indians: Winners (2013, 2015, 2017, 2019, 2020)

Chennai Super Kings: Winners (2010, 2011, 2018)

Sunrisers Hyderabad: Winners (2016)

Rajasthan Royals: Winners (2008)

Delhi Capitals: Runners-up (2020)

Royal Challengers Bangalore: Runners-up (2009, 2011, 2016)

Kolkata Knight Riders: Winners (2012, 2014)

Punjab Kings: Runners-up (2014)

Have any players pulled out of the tournament after the IPL 2021 auction? Who replaced them?

Joshua Philippe (RCB), Mitchell Marsh (SRH) and Josh Hazlewood (CSK) have pulled out of the tournament so far. RCB roped in New Zealand power-hitter Finn Allan in place of Philippe, while England limited-overs opener Jason Roy replaced Marsh at SRH. CSK are yet to announce a replacement for Hazlewood. 

Shreyas Iyer has been ruled out due to a shoulder injury, handing over the Delhi Capitals captaincy to Rishabh Pant. In other personnel changes, Sanju Samson has been elevated as the captain of Rajasthan Royals, replacing Steven Smith.

There have been reports that Billy Stanlake and Reece Topley refused the offer to be a replacement for Hazlewood citing rising COVID cases in India.

Squads:

Mumbai Indians: Rohit Sharma (c), Aditya Tare, Anmolpreet Singh, Anukul Roy, Dhawal Kulkarni, Hardik Pandya, Ishan Kishan, Jasprit Bumrah, Jayant Yadav, Kieron Pollard, Krunal Pandya, Quinton de Kock, Rahul Chahar, Suryakumar Yadav, Chris Lynn, Mohsin Khan, Saurabh Tiwary, Trent Boult, Adam Milne, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Piyush Chawla, James Neeshan, Yudhvir Charak, Marco Jansen, Arjun Tendulkar

Head coach: Mahela Jayawardene

Chennai Super Kings: MS Dhoni (c), Suresh Raina, Narayan Jagadeesabn, Ruturaj Gaikwad, KM Asif, Karn Sharma, Ambati Rayudu, Deepak Chahar, Faf du Plessis, Shardul Thakur, Mitchell Santner, Dwayne Bravo, Lungi Ngidi, Sam Curran, Ravindra Jadeja, Imran Tahir, Robin Uthappa, Moeen Ali, K Gowtham, Cheteshwar Pujara, M.Harisankar Reddy, K.Bhagath Varma, C Hari Nishaanth, R Sai Kishore

Head coach: Stephen Fleming

Delhi Capitals: Rishabh Pant (c), Ajinkya Rahane, Amit Mishra, Avesh Khan, Axar Patel, Ishant Sharma, Kagiso Rabada, Prithvi Shaw, Ravichandran Ashwin, Shikhar Dhawan, Lalit Yadav, Marcus Stoinis, Shimron Hetmyer, Chris Woakes, Anrich Nortje, Steve Smith, Umesh Yadav, Ripal Patel, Lukman Hussain Meriwala, M Siddharth, Tom Curran, Sam Billings, Pravin Dubey, Vishnu Vinod

Head coach: Ricky Ponting

Kolkata Knight Riders: Eoin Morgan (c), Dinesh Karthik, Andre Russell, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Kuldeep Yadav, Lockie Ferguson, Nitish Rana, Prasidh Krishna, Rinku Singh, Sandeep Warrier, Shivam Mavi, Shubman Gill, Sunil Narine, Pat Cummins, Rahul Tripathi, Varun Chakravarthy, Pawan Negi, Tim Seifert, Shakib al Hasan, Sheldon Jackson, Vaibhav Arora, Karun Nair, Harbhajan Singh, Ben Cutting, Venkatesh Iyer

Head coach: Brendon McCullum

Punjab Kings: KL Rahul (c), Chris Gayle, Mayank Agarwal, Nicholas Pooran, Mandeep Singh, Sarfaraz Khan, Deepak Hooda, Prabhsimran Singh, Mohammed Shami, Chris Jordan, Darshan Nalkande, Ravi Bishnoi, Murugan Ashwin, Arshdeep Singh, Harpreet Brar, Ishan Porel, Dawid Malan, Jhye Richardson, Shahrukh Khan, Riley Meredith, Moises Henriques, Jalaj Saxena, Utkarsh Singh, Fabian Allen, Saurabh Kumar

Head coach: Anil Kumble

Rajasthan Royals: Sanju Samson (c), Ben Stokes, Jofra Archer, Jos Buttler, Riyan Parag, Shreyas Gopal, Rahul Tewatia, Mahipal Lomror, Kartik Tyagi, Andrew Tye, Jaydev Unadkat, Mayank Markande, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Anuj Rawat, David Miller, Manan Vohra, Shivam Dube, Chris Morris, Mustafizur Rahim, Chetan Sakariya, K.C. Cariappa, Liam Livingstone, Kuldip Yadav, Akash Singh

Head coach: Andrew McDonald

Royal Challengers Bangalore: Virat Kohli (c), AB de Villiers, Yuzvendra Chahal, Devdutt Padikkal, Harshal Patel, Daniel Sams, Washington Sundar, Mohammed Siraj, Navdeep Saini, Adam Zampa, Shahbaz Ahmed, Kane Richardson, Pavan Deshpande, Glenn Maxwell, Sachin Baby, Rajat Patidar, Mohammed Azharuddeen, Kyle Jamieson, Dan Christian, Suyesh Prabhudessai, K.S. Bharat, Finn Allen

Head coach: Simon Katich

Sunrisers Hyderabad: David Warner (c) Kane Williamson, Manish Pandey, Virat Singh, Priyam Garg, Abdul Samad, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Khaleel Ahmed, Sandeep Sharma, Siddharth Kaul, T Natarajan, Abhishek Sharma, Shahbaz Nadeem, Vijay Shankar, Mohammad Nabi, Rashid Khan, Jonny Bairstow, Wriddhiman Saha, Shreevats Goswami, Basil Thampi, Jason Holder, Jason Roy, Jagadeesha Suchith, Kedar Yadav, Mujeeb ur Rahman

Head coach: Trevor Bayliss