Defending champions Royal Challengers Bengaluru will begin their Indian Premier League 2026 campaign against Sunrisers Hyderabad in the tournament’s opening match on March 28. The game is scheduled to take place at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, marking the official start of the new IPL season.

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The stadium was recently cleared by the Karnataka Government to host IPL fixtures after uncertainty followed a tragic stampede during RCB’s title celebrations last June that claimed 11 lives. Despite receiving initial approval, matches at the Chinnaswamy Stadium will still require final clearance from an expert committee appointed by the state government.

According to an official IPL statement, the committee is set to conduct a meeting and inspect the stadium on March 13, 2026. During the visit, authorities will organize a full-scale mock demonstration of match-day operations to evaluate the venue’s readiness for hosting IPL matches safely.

The second match of the opening weekend will feature Mumbai Indians taking on Kolkata Knight Riders at the Wankhede Stadium. Notably, the tournament’s opening weekend will not include any double-headers.

With assembly elections scheduled in several states, including West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, and Assam—home regions for teams like KKR, Chennai Super Kings, and Rajasthan Royals—the IPL has opted to release the tournament schedule in two phases. The first phase, announced on Wednesday, includes 20 matches along with four double-headers scheduled across the weekends of April 4–5 and April 11–12.

During this opening phase, all ten franchises will play four matches each. However, the league has not yet confirmed how the teams have been divided into groups. In previous IPL seasons featuring ten teams, franchises were split into two virtual groups, with teams facing opponents within their group twice and teams from the opposite group once.

This will be only the second time RCB and SRH meet in an IPL season opener. Their previous encounter in the opening match came in 2017, when SRH entered the season as defending champions and RCB as runners-up. For SRH, the 2026 opener will be their second appearance in the first match of an IPL season, while RCB will feature in the opening fixture for the seventh time.

Meanwhile, Rajasthan Royals will complete the Guwahati leg of their home schedule during the first phase, playing three matches at the venue. Their remaining four home games will take place at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium.

Two other franchises will also use secondary venues this season. RCB are set to host two matches in Raipur, while Punjab Kings will stage three games in Dharamsala.

Since the IPL’s inaugural season in 2008, the tournament schedule has occasionally been released in phases during election years, including 2009, 2014, 2019, and 2024, when national or state elections overlapped with the league calendar.