IPL 2025 El Clasico To Take Place On This Date!! Defending Champions To Start Tournament

Any season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) after the mega auction brings new excitement and fierce battle among the ten franchises. And the 2025 season of the league won’t be different. As the rule suggests, the defending champions, Kolkata Knight Riders, will host the opener and the final of the upcoming edition.

A few successful franchises, Mumbai Indians and the Chennai Super Kings are locked on five titles in the history of the tournament, and both sides will aim to break the jail with one more trophy in the cabinet.

IPL 2025 El Classico of MI vs CSK to happen on this date

The focus for the Indian team till the first week of March will be on the Champions Trophy, which starts on February 19 and ends on March 09. After nearly two weeks’ break, the IPL will begin, while the authority hasn't confirmed the final schedule yet.

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When the dates and venues come out of the league, the focus straightaway goes to the fixture of the El Classico, between the two most successful sides of the tournament. ESPNcricinfo has revealed that the Chennai Super Kings will host the Mumbai Indians at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chepauk on the evening of March 23.

In the history of the event, both sides have faced each other 37 times. The Yellow Army has gained victory in 17 encounters, while the rest of the games have gone in Mumbai’s favor. However, the Ruturaj Gaikwad-led side has enjoyed the upper hand over the Hardik Pandya-led side in the recent five clashes.

CSK has a lead of 4-1 in their head-to-head against Mumbi. The last victory for the One Family against the Whistle Podu army came in 2022. Rohit Sharma’s cracking century at the Wankhede Stadium wasn’t enough to save MI from their 20-run defeat against the Super Kings in the previous season.

IPL 2025 opener to occur between KKR and RCB on March 22

The defending champions, Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), and the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) will meet each other in the IPL 2025 opener at the Eden Gardens. Both the franchises will be led by their new captains. Even though the 2016 runners-up have already appointed Rajat Patidar as their new leader, the two-time champions are yet to make the leadership announcement.

The second clash of the IPL 2025 season will be between the inaugural champions, Rajasthan Royals (RR), and the runners-up of the 2024 season, Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH), at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Uppal. That will be an afternoon clash on Sunday (March 23), followed by CSK vs MI in the evening.

Eden Gardens to host IPL 2025 final; Dharamsala and Guwahati to earn vital fixtures

The 18th edition of the 20-over tournament will take place in 12 venues- the ten traditional homes for the franchises as well as Guwahati and Dharamshala. The former will host Rajasthan Royals’ two encounters against KKR and CSK.

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Dharamshala will be the second venue for the Punjab Kings (PBKS), who has a new captain and coach in Shreyas Iyer and Ricky Ponting. They will play three of their home games at this venue, which is one more than the usual two they play each season at the venue in Himachal Pradesh. The remaining four games will take place at Mullanpur, Punjab.

Eden Gardens will also host the final and the second qualifier of the tournament on March 25 and 22, respectively. The first qualifier and the eliminator will happen at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Hyderabad.