BCCI, on Monday (May 12), announced the revised IPL 2025 schedule. The tournament will now conclude on June 3, nine days later than the earlier schedule. With the WTC scheduled on June 11, the players from Australia and South Africa are unlikely to return.
The revised schedule of IPL 2025 was announced on Monday (May 12) by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). The league was suspended for a week on May 8 following the escalated tensions between India and Pakistan. The 58th match of the season between Punjab Kings and Delhi Capitals had to be called off midway in Dharamsala and later all the players, support staff, and broadcast personnel were shifted to Delhi in a special Vande Bharat train.
According to the new schedule, the league stage of IPL 2025 will now conclude on May 27, while the final is scheduled to take place on June 3. For the first time since 2014, the IPL final is spilled into June and probably for the first time in so many years, the summit clash will be played on a weekday.
Meanwhile, the gap between the IPL final and the WTC Final has now reduced to only seven days. This means that the availability of players from Australia and South Africa will be under scrutiny. Australia captain Pat Cummins and Travis Head (both SRH), Mitchell Starc and Tristan Stubbs (both DC), Josh Hazlewood (RCB), Marco Jansen and Josh Inglis (both PBKS), along with Aiden Markram (LSG), Kagiso Rabada (GT), Ryan Rickelton (MI), Kwena Mphaka (RR) are featuring this season. Both teams are set to announce their respective squads on Tuesday (May 13).
Moreover, the IPL will now also clash with the ODI series between England and the West Indies that is scheduled to commence on May 29. Romario Shepherd (RCB), Shamar Joseph (LSG) and Sherfane Rutherford (GT), all these West Indies players have been picked in the squad. England have not announced their squad for the series yet, but the players that are likely to be affected are Jos Buttler (GT), Phil Salt (RCB), Jacob Bethell (RCB), Liam Livingstone (RCB), Will Jacks (MI) and Reece Topley (MI).
Moreover, the first four-day match between India A and England Lions is scheduled to be played from May 30, and that series is certain to be postponed now. It remains to be seen now if the franchises will be able to get their overseas players’ availability sorted for the remainder of the season.
