The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) will confirm the venues for the IPL 2026 playoffs in two days, secretary Devajit Saikia said in Mumbai on Saturday (May 2). However, Saikia refused to confirm if
the hosting rights would be awarded to the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru and the Maharaja Yadavindra Singh PCA Stadium in Mullanpur, as is expected, because of the teams that played the 2025 final.
There’s an unsaid rule in the IPL that the winning team of a season gets to host the opening clash, the Qualifier 2, and the final of the following campaign, while the runner-up team hosts the first two playoff matches: the Qualifier 1 and the Eliminator. So, by that pattern, IPL 2025 winner Royal Challengers Bengaluru should get the final, while Mullanpur should be allowed to host the knockouts.
This rule is quite loosely applied and hasn’t been utilised consistently for several seasons now. For instance, Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) played the final in 2024, but neither’s home ground got a playoff in 2025, with Ahmedabad and Mullanpur getting two each.
“We are working on what could be the appropriate venue for the IPL playoffs and the final. So, we will take another two days’ time,” Saikia told reporters on the sidelines of the BCCI meeting to pick the national women’s team for the 2026 T20 World Cup.
Asked specifically about the two grounds in question, he said, “You can keep guessing, but I am not going to give you a reply. We will take a call in two days’ time.”
RCB captain Rajat Patidar has already spoken about playing the 2026 final in front of his home crowd, despite there being no confirmation. It won’t be a straightforward choice, though, because RCB are not even playing all seven games at the ground, which has only recently made significant security updates after the deadly stampede in 2025.
Meanwhile, a Cricbuzz report said that Mullanpur wasn’t certain to get the two playoffs in its quota because it hosted two in 2025.
