Eden Gardens to host the final of Ind-T20 League 2025

Eden Gardens, the home ground of three time champions Kolkata, will host both the inaugural and the final match of Indian T20 League 2025. While the curtain raiser is slated for March 22, the final will be played on May 25. 

This will be the first time in a decade that Eden Gardens will host a final, having previously hosted 2013 and 2015 title matches. The Qualifier 2 scheduled on May 23 will also be played here. 

The remaining two playoffs- Qualifier 1 (May 20) and Eliminator (May 21) will be played in Hyderabad, home of 2016 champions Hyderabad. 

The 2025 edition of the T20 carnival will feature 74 matches spread over 65 days with 12 double headers. The first match will witness Kolkata lock horns with Bengaluru followed by a double header on Sunday (March 23) with Hyderabad hosting 2008 champions Rajasthan and then the clash of champions between Chennai and Mumbai in the evening. 

Rajasthan, Delhi, Lucknow and Gujarat will play three afternoon matches each, while the other seven franchises will play two day matches each. 

13 venues are listed in the schedule; the home bases of each of the 10 teams along with Guwahati (Rajasthan’s second home ground), Visakhapatnam (Delhi’s second home venue) and Dharamsala (Punjab’s second home venue). While Dharamsala will host three matches, Guwahati and Vizag will have two matches each.

Dharamsala has usually hosted two games per season, the Indian T20 League has scheduled an additional game here this season, with Delhi, Mumbai and Lucknow listed as Punjab’s oppositions. These three games will be played from May 4 to 11, making Punjab the only team to have three back-to-back home matches. While many teams will be occupied in playing consecutive matches with a day or two days break in between, no side will be on track to play three away matches on the trot. 

As has been the format in every season since the competition expanded to ten teams (2022), the teams have been divided into two groups, with Kolkata, Bengaluru, Rajasthan, Chennai and Punjab in one group and Hyderabad, Delhi, Gujarat, Mumbai and Lucknow in the other. The teams will face the other teams in their group and one team in the other group- decided by seeding- twice, and the other four sides in the opposite group once. 

For instance Chennai and Mumbai will meet twice despite not belonging to the same group. 

After their clash on March 23, these two teams will cross swords again on April 20, with Mumbai hosting the men in yellow at the iconic Wankhede Stadium. Four teams- Bengaluru, Mumbai, Punjab and Lucknow- will all play their first match away, and only play their respective opening home fixtures in April. Bengaluru, who last year miraculously bounced back from the bottom half of the table to secure their place into the playoffs, will conclude their league phase with an extended spell of home games; four of their last six matches will be played at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium.