The 2026 edition of the IPL gets underway on Saturday when the Royal Challengers take on the Sunrisers in Bengaluru. We take a look at each of the first 5 matches to take us through to the 1st April including a play in each game
Note, Full squad lists are those initially finalized after the auction, players are subject to availability and fitness etc… *Overseas player
Odds are subject to change
More information will be added to each preview nearer to each match day along with a betting tip
Saturday 28th March Royal Challengers Bengaluru v Sunrisers Hyderabad
Venue: M.Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru
RCB Squad: Abhinandan Singh, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Devdutt Padikkal, Jacob Bethell*, Jitesh Sharma, Josh Hazlewood*, Krunal Pandya, Nuwan Thushara*, Phil Salt*, Rajat Patidar, Rasikh Dar, Romario Shepherd*, Suyash Sharma, Swapnil Singh, Tim David*, Virat Kohli, Yash Dayal, Venkatesh Iyer*, Mangesh Yadav, Jordan Cox*, Kanishk Chouhan, Vihaan Malhotra, Vicky Ostwal, Satvik Deswal
Sunrisers Squad: Abhishek Sharma, Aniket Verma, Brydon Carse*, Eshan Malinga*, Harsh Dubey, Harshal Patel, Heinrich Klaasen*, Ishan Kishan, Jaydev Unadkat, Kamindu Mendis*, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Pat Cummins*, Smaran Ravichandaran, Travis Head*, Zeeshan Ansari, Liam Livingstone*, Jack Edwards*, Salil Arora, Shivam Mavi, Krains Fuletra, Praful Hinge, Amit Kumar, Onkar Tarmale, Sakib Hussain, Shivang Kumar.
Match Result Betting: RCB 0.77/1 Sunrisers 11/10
Total Sixes Line Over/Under 20.5
RCB won the title in 2025 and are trading at around 11/2 (2nd favourites) to defend it. Sunrisers are 8/1 shots and they will be without Pat Cummins for the earlier stages of this tournament.
I’ll start with a Player Performance pick and given I envisage that Sunrisers will be competitive here Klaasen gets the vote to beat his quote.
Bets: Player Performance Heinrich Klaasen over 28.5 points at 0.87/1 with WSB
Sunday 29th March Mumbai Indians v Kolkata Knight Riders
Venue: Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai
MI Squad: Allah Ghazanfar*, Ashwani Kumar, Corbin Bosch*, Deepak Chahar, Hardik Pandya, Jasprit Bumrah, Mayank Markande (T), *Mitchell Santner, Naman Dhir, Raghu Sharma, Raj Angad Bawa, Robin Minz, Rohit Sharma, Ryan Rickelton*, Shardul Thakur, Sherfane Rutherford*, Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Verma, Trent Boult*, Will Jacks*, Quinton de Kock*, Mayank Rawat, Atharva Ankolekar, Mohammad Izhar, Danish Malewar
KKR Squad: Ajinkya Rahane, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Anukul Roy, Navdeep Saini, Manish Pandey, Ramandeep Singh, Rinku Singh, Rovman Powell*, Sunil Narine*, Umran Malik, Vaibhav Arora, Varun Chakaravarthy, Cameron Green*, Matheesha Pathirana*, Mustafizur Rahman*, Tejasvi Singh, Rachin Ravindra*, Finn Allen*, Tim Seifert*, Saurabh Dubey, Rahul Tripathi, Daksh Kamra, Sarthak Ranjan, Prashant Solanki, Kartik Tyagi
Match Result Betting: MI 0.54/1 KKR 15/10
Total Sixes Line Over/Under 18.5
Mumbai are trading as favourites in the outright betting to win the title at around 7/2 whilst KKR can be backed at around 9/1.
KKR have been hit by injuries and especially in the pace bowling department which I’m thinking will lead the way for Mumbai to hit the most sixes.
Bets: Most sixes Mumbai Indians at 0.77/1 with Sportingbet
Monday 30th March Rajasthan Royals v Chennai Super Kings
Venue: Barsapara Cricket Stadium, Guwahati
Royals Squad: Dhruv Jurel, Donovan Ferreira*, Jofra Archer*, Kwena Maphaka*, Lhuan-Dre Pretorious*, Nandre Burger*, Ravindra Jadeja, Riyan Parag, Dasun Shanaka, Sandeep Sharma, Shimron Hetmyer*, Shubham Dubey, Tushar Deshpande, Vaibhav Suryavanshi, Yashaswi Jaiswal, Yudhvir Charak, Ravi Bishnoi, Adam Milne*, Ravi Singh, Sushant Mishra, Kuldeep Sen, Brijesh Sharma, Aman Rao Perala, Vignesh Puthur, Yash Raj Punja
CSK Squad: MS Dhoni, Anshul Kamboj, Gurjapneet Singh, Jamie Overton*, Mukesh Choudhary, Noor Ahmad*, Ramakrishna Ghosh, Sanju Samson, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shivam Dube, Shreyas Gopal, Syed Khaleel Ahmed, Ayush Mhatre, Dewald Brevis*, Urvil Patel, Kartik Sharma, Prashant Veer, Rahul Chahar, Matt Henry*, Akeal Hosein*, Matthew Short*, Zak Foulkes*, Sarfaraz Khan, Aman Khan
Match Result Betting: RR 21/20 CSK 0.78/1
CSK will look to youngsters such as Brevis to provide the fireworks and they are trading at around 8/1 to win the tournament whilst Jadeja will be a key man for the Royals who are the outsiders at 14/1.
I’m going to show a bit of ambition here and side with Ayush Mhatre, whom much will be expected from at the top of the CSK order, to top score for the visitors.
Bets: Top CSK run Scorer Ayush Mhatre at 19/5 with Sportingbet
Tuesday 31st March Punjab Kings v Gujurat Titans
Venue: Maharaja Yadavindra Singh International Cricket Stadium, Mullanpur
Kings Squad: Arshdeep Singh, Azmatullah Omarzai*, Harnoor Pannu, Harpreet Brar, Lockie Ferguson*, Marco Jansen*, Marcus Stoinis*, Mitch Owen*, Musheer Khan, Nehal Wadhera, Prabhsimran Singh, Priyansh Arya, Pyla Avinash, Shashank Singh, Shreyas Iyer, Suryansh Shedge, Vishnu Vinod, Vyshak Vijaykumar, Xavier Bartlett*, Yash Thakur, Yuzvendra Chahal, Ben Dwarshuis*, Cooper Connolly*, Vishal Nishad, Pravin Dubey
Titans Squad: Anuj Rawat, Glenn Phillips*, Gurnoor Singh Brar, Ishant Sharma, Jayant Yadav, Jos Buttler*, Kagiso Rabada*, Kumar Kushagra, Manav Suthar, Mohammad Siraj, Mohd. Arshad Khan, Nishant Sindhu, Prasidh Krishna, R. Sai Kishore, Rahul Tewatia, Rashid Khan*, Sai Sudharsan, Shahrukh Khan, Shubman Gill, Washington Sundar, Jason Holder*, Tom Banton*, Ashok Sharma, Luke Wood*, Kulwant Khejroliya
Match Result Betting: Punjab 0.78/1 Titans 21/20
Total Sixes Line under/over 15.5
The Kings are trading at around 7/1 in the outright winner betting market and the Titans can be backed at around 8.5/1.
Both these sides were not overly busy at auction time, Shreyas Iyer leads the Kings and Shubman Gill skippers the Titans line up and I find them pretty hard to split. The Kings record in home fixtures over recent times is pretty poor but I do like the look of their bowling line up. That leads me to the price boosts and following one South African bowler on each side, Jansen for the Kings, Rabada for the Titans could pay dividends.
Bets: Top Punjab Kings Bowler Marco Jansen at 15/4 with Sportingbet
Top Titans Bowler Kagiso Rabada at 15/4 with Sportingbet
Wednesday 1st April Lucknow Super Giants v Delhi Capitals
Venue: Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium, Lucknow
LSG Squad: Abdul Samad, Aiden Markram*, Akash Singh, Arjun Tendulkar, Arshin Kulkarni, Avesh Khan, Ayush Badoni, Digvesh Rathi, Himmat Singh, Manimaran Siddharth, Matthew Breetzke*, Mayank Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Mitchell Marsh*, Mohsin Khan, Nicholas Pooran*, Prince Yadav, Rishabh Pant, Shahbaz Ahmed, Josh Inglis*, Mukul Choudhary, Akshat Raghuwanshi, Anrich Nortje*, Wanindu Hasaranga*, Naman Tiwari
DC Squad: Abhishek Porel, Ajay Mandal, Ashutosh Sharma, Axar Patel, Dushmantha Chameera*, Karun Nair, KL Rahul, Kuldeep Yadav, Madhav Tiwari, Mitchell Starc*, Mukesh Kumar, Nitish Rana, Sameer Rizvi, T. Natarajan, Tripurana Vijay, Tristan Stubbs*, Vipraj Nigam, Auqib Dar, Pathum Nissanka*, Kyle Jamieson*, Lungi Ngidi*, David Miller*, Prithvi Shaw, Sahil Parakh
Match Result Betting: LSG 21/20 Delhi 0.77/1
Most sixes, LSG evens, Draw 7/1 Delhi evens
Neither side is particularly well fancied in the outright betting with the Super Giants trading at around 14/1 to win the tournament whilst Delhi can be backed at around 12/1.
On the team news from Delhi new signing Ben Duckett will not be taking part in the tournament and Mitch Starc may not be available for the early DC matches. Looking at the potential line ups and LSG’s top order looks pretty formidable to me and I’ll go with them to outscore Delhi in the first 6 overs.
Bets: Highest score in first 6 overs Lucknow Super Giants at 17/20 with Betway
Note, odds are subject to change
More tips from the Goodforthegame Community can be found on the dedicated IPL thread on our Discussion Forum. If you haven't done so already, register a forum account here.
