The dates and groups are announced for Indian T20 League

The dates are finally announced as the 15th edition of the Indian T20 League is all set to start on 26th March. With less than 30 days left for the mega tournament, the board has yet to announce the schedule but it has been more or less confirmed that the entire tournament is going to be organised in Maharashtra with the playoffs to be played in Ahmedabad.

With two new teams added in the tournament, there will be as many as 74 games in this edition of the tournament. 20 of them will be hosted in the Wankhede Stadium, 20 in DY Patil Stadium while 15 each in Brabourne Stadium and MCA Stadium in Pune.

Coming to the new format of the league, two groups have been announced for the tournament. Teams drafted in the same group will face each other twice and also twice against the team in the same row in the other group. To add to that, they will face the remaining of the four teams once in this year’s Indian T20 League.

All the teams are scheduled to play 4 matches at Wankhede Stadium and 4 in DY Patil Stadium while three each in Pune and Brabourne stadium. The board is also expected to allow spectators to come and watch all the matches if Covid is under control in the state.

The board has also explained why the entire tournament is scheduled to take place in Maharashtra. In a statement they explained, “The 15th edition of the Indian Premier League will be played in a bio-secure environment at a single hub to avoid air travel which is considered as a major threat for the spread of COVID-19 infection, thereby affecting the players and the League/matches”

Here’s the new format of the tournament -