10 teams will be divided into two groups - New format of IPL from 2021 season

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is all set to approve the addition of two new teams in the upcoming Indian Premier League (IPL) season. The approval will reportedly be given in the Annual General Meeting of the board scheduled to take place on December 24. This isn’t the first time that the IPL will have 10 teams fighting for the glory.

In 2011, 10 teams had featured in the season while in the next two editions of the T20 extravaganza, nine teams had taken part. And now with the BCCI likely to approve two new teams, the IPL 2021 is also set to have 10 teams. Earlier, it was reported that only one team will be added ahead of the next season while the 10th franchise will be added the following season.

However, the franchises were reportedly not happy with this as two mega auctions would’ve taken place in that case. Meanwhile, the addition of two new teams will now bring a spate of changes to the next IPL season.

What will be the format for IPL 2021?

Currently, the eight participating teams face each other twice in a round-robin format making it 14 matches in the league stage before the top four teams making it to the playoffs. However, this number will reach to 18 after two teams are added which might lead to a lengthy IPL season and a lot of matches.

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But according to Times of India, there will be a change in the format in IPL 2021 and the organisers are pondering to revert to the one used back in 2011. As per the format in 2011, 10 teams will be divided into two groups of five with all the sides playing 14 matches only in the league stages – facing the other four teams in their group twice (home game and away game), facing four teams in other group once and then the remaining team twice.

A random draw was used to determine groups and select which team plays against the other once or twice. The format seemed complicated but it saved a lot of time for the BCCI then.