The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Wednesday announced the first phase of the schedule for the 2026 season of the Indian Premier League (IPL), during which 20 games will be played across 10 cities — Bengaluru, Mumbai, Guwahati, New Chandigarh, Lucknow, Kolkata, Chennai, Delhi, Ahmedabad and Hyderabad.
Four of those 20 games belong to Chennai Super Kings. Two of those are away from home, while all are evening games. The five-time champions, who lifted the title in 2010, 2011, 2018, 2021 and 2023, will kick off their campaign with an away game against the Rajasthan Royals in Guwahati on March 30, before returning home to Chennai to host Punjab Kings on April 3. CSK will then travel to Bengaluru to play Royal Challengers Bengaluru on April 5, before hosting Delhi Capitals at the Chepauk after a gap of six days.
Chennai entered the IPL auction last December with the second-largest purse of INR 43.40 crore and spent more than half of it on uncapped players, marking a significant shift from CSK’s longstanding experience-first approach. They roped in Prashant Veer and Kartik Sharma for a staggering INR 14.2 crore each and also made smart signings in Akeal Hosein and Matt Henry.
Chennai’s biggest acquisition heading into the new season has been the signing of Sanju Samson in exchange for Ravindra Jadeja and Sam Curran in a trade deal with Rajasthan Royals. While it has sparked questions over MS Dhoni’s presence in the line-up and whether he will be available in full capacity for the entire season, fans have been assured by CSK’s CEO that Dhoni will be part of the entire campaign.
Here is CSK’s IPL 2026 schedule:
RR vs CSK – 7:30 PM IST – March 30 – Barsapara Cricket Stadium, Guwahati
CSK vs PBKS – 7:30 PM IST – April 3 – MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai
RCB vs CSK – 7:30 PM IST – April 5 – M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru
CSK vs DC – 7:30 PM IST – April 11 – MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai
CSK’s full squad for IPL 2026:
Ruturaj Gaikwad (c), Ayush Mhatre, M.S. Dhoni, Dewald Brevis, Urvil Patel, Shivam Dube, Jamie Overton, Ramakrishna Ghosh, Noor Ahmad, Khaleel Ahmed, Anshul Kamboj, Gurjapneet Singh, Shreyas Gopal, Mukesh Choudhary, Nathan Ellis, Sanju Samson, Kartik Sharma, Prashant Veer, Rahul Chahar, Akeal Hosein, Matt Henry, Matthew Short, Aman Khan, Sarfaraz Khan, Zakary Foulkes
