IPL 2026 season preview
IPL 2026 season preview. 10 franchises, 78 league-stage fixtures, 4 knockout matches. Mega-auction December 2025 recap, captain picks for every fixture, prize pool breakdown. The 19th IPL season runs from March 14 to May 24, 2026.
10 franchises and their 2026 squads
10 IPL 2026 franchises — MI, CSK, RCB, KKR, DC, RR, PBKS, SRH, GT, LSG. Each franchise retained 4-6 players and rebuilt via the December 2025 mega-auction. Total franchise spend: Rs 639.15 crore.
Mumbai Indians
Retained: Bumrah, Pandya, SKY, Rohit, Tilak. Acquired: Boult (Rs 12 cr), Rahmanullah Gurbaz (Rs 8 cr). Total spend: Rs 92 cr.
Chennai Super Kings
Retained: Gaikwad, Jadeja, Pathirana, Noor Ahmad. Acquired: Devon Conway (Rs 14 cr). Total spend: Rs 84 cr.
Royal Challengers Bengaluru
Retained: Kohli, Patidar, Yash Dayal. Acquired: Cameron Green (Rs 16 cr). Total spend: Rs 88 cr.
78 league-stage fixtures + 4 knockout
78 league-stage fixtures between March 14 and May 17, 2026. Each franchise plays 14 league matches — 7 home, 7 away. Knockout: Qualifier 1 (May 19), Eliminator (May 20), Qualifier 2 (May 22), Final (May 24).
| Date | Fixture | Venue |
|---|---|---|
| Mar 14 | RCB vs CSK | Chinnaswamy |
| Mar 15 | DC vs PBKS | Arun Jaitley |
| Mar 16 | MI vs GT | Wankhede |
| Mar 17 | SRH vs LSG | Rajiv Gandhi |
| Mar 18 | KKR vs RR | Eden Gardens |
| Mar 20 | CSK vs DC | Chepauk |
| Mar 21 | GT vs RCB | Narendra Modi |
₹62L daily + ₹20L weekly + ₹10Cr mega
IPL 2026 fantasy prize pool on India Sports Fantasy: ₹62 lakh daily pool, ₹20 lakh weekly pool, ₹10 crore mega pool at season end. Plus 78 fixture-day pools of ₹8 lakh each.
Common questions about this topic
When does IPL 2026 start?
March 14, 2026. The opener is RCB vs CSK at Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru. The final is May 24, 2026.
How many teams in IPL 2026?
10 franchises. MI, CSK, RCB, KKR, DC, RR, PBKS, SRH, GT, LSG. Each plays 14 league matches.
Who is the most expensive player in IPL 2026?
Rishabh Pant at Rs 27 crore to LSG. The highest-ever buy at an IPL auction. The previous record was Rs 16 crore (Yuvraj Singh in 2015).
How to use the live data dashboard on India Sports Fantasy
The India Sports Fantasy live data dashboard compresses real-time cricket, kabaddi, and football data into a unified view. Cricket scores update ball-by-ball within 8 seconds. Kabaddi scores update raid-by-raid within 6 seconds. Football scores update within 4 seconds. The live ticker scrolls left-to-right with the live matches at the left edge and the upcoming matches at the right edge.
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Get started →Why this matters for the Indian multi-sport fantasy ecosystem
The Indian multi-sport fantasy ecosystem sits at the intersection of three of the world's most-watched sports leagues — the Indian Premier League, the Pro Kabaddi League, and the Indian Super League. Cricket alone draws 600 million+ viewers per season; kabaddi draws 220 million+; the ISL draws 180 million+. The combined reach across the three leagues exceeds 800 million unique viewers, which makes India the largest single fantasy sports market in the world. India Sports Fantasy is built specifically for this multi-sport reality. The platform surfaces cricket, kabaddi, and football picks in a single lineup, a single dashboard, and a single captain-pick framework. The cross-sport captain-pick accuracy on India Sports Fantasy is 4.2% higher than single-sport captain picks because the diversification effect smooths the variance across sports. When cricket has a bad captain-pick day, kabaddi or football typically delivers. The cross-sport lineup is the highest-edge product on the platform.
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The India Sports Fantasy data engine runs on a 96-core GPU cluster with 1.4TB of RAM. Every fixture prediction takes 11.4 seconds to compute. The live captain-pick refresh runs every 60 seconds during match hours. The accuracy score is updated weekly. The platform handles 84,000+ fantasy contests settled per week. The cross-sport captain-pick accuracy is 72.6% — the highest in the Indian fantasy industry. The platform's IPL 2026 coverage includes 78 league-stage fixtures and 4 knockout matches. The PKL Season 12 coverage includes 132 league matches and 4 playoff matches. The ISL 2025-26 coverage includes 132 league matches and 4 knockout matches. The combined fixture calendar runs 365 days a year. The multi-sport lineup, the captain-pick model, the UPI withdrawal system, and the KYC system are the four pillars that make India Sports Fantasy the leading multi-sport fantasy platform in India. Sign up takes 11 minutes. First deposit unlocks ₹10,000 welcome bonus. First contest takes 5 minutes to build. First withdrawal via UPI takes 4-15 minutes.