It's that time of the year! The Indian Premier League, the 10-week-long festival of cricket, celebration, fandom, enjoyment and emotions set to kick offon Friday, March 22 in Chennai. The defending champions Chennai Super Kings (CSK) will take on Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) in the opener. There is a change of guard with Ruturaj Gaikwad being handed over the reins by MS Dhoni, the five-time IPL winning captain. The shoes are big to fill but it's Gaikwad's now and he now has to fit in them and take the franchise and its legacy forward.
Against him will be his former opening partner Faf du Plessis, the 39-year-old South African great in his own right, trying to fulfill a franchise's dream of a maiden IPL trophy. There are several other narratives this season, the emotional comeback of Rishabh Pant, the captaincy fiasco at the Mumbai Indians, a young skipper at Gujarat Titans, a non-existent T20 player being made the captain at Sunrisers Hyderabad following his international success in the other two formats. Amid all this, there are a couple of new rules in the form of two bouncers per over and a smart replay system for DRS to reduce the time spent.
There's a lot of newness and a few major returns in the form of Shreyas Iyer, Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins and Rajat Patidar. MS Dhoni and Rohit Sharma, the two most successful captains in IPL will play just as players. There are several narratives and the excitement and the buzz is at its peak before the big clash as IPL begins its 17th season.
When and where to watch IPL 2024 for free on OTT in India?
The matches in the 2024 edition of the IPL will have a 7:30 PM IST start with the toss to take place 30 minutes before. The opening match will have an 8 PM start with an opening ceremony scheduled for 6:30 PM IST. The day matches will kick off at 3:30 PM IST. In the first 15 days, there are only four double-header days - March 23, 24, 31 and April 7, till which the schedule has been announced so far.
The whole IPL 2024 season will be live on TV on Star Sports network across languages. The games can be live streamed for free on the Jio Cinema app and website for the next 66 days.
