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IPL 2026: The biggest match of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 will now be played in Ahmedabad. The final match will be held at Narendra Modi Stadium on 31 May. Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), despite being the champion team of last season, will be deprived of hosting the final on its home ground.

Why did BCCI break tradition?

It has been an old tradition of IPL that the defending champion gets to host the final match, but this time BCCI has broken this tradition. The board has officially cited “operational and logistics” reasons. Sources say that the political controversy regarding ticket allotment in Bengaluru also played an important role in this decision.

Why did ticket dispute become the reason?

At the beginning of this season, some Congress MLAs from Karnataka had demanded free IPL tickets. He claimed that the MLAs are VIPs, hence they should not stand in queues like ordinary spectators. This issue quickly took on a political colour. Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar had to intervene.

Finally a compromise was reached and MLAs, MLCs and MPs were given three complimentary tickets each. However, Karnataka Home Minister G. Parmeshwar made it clear that these tickets would be non-transferable and only family members would be able to use them. This entire controversy forced BCCI to reconsider hosting Bengaluru.

Effect of last year’s incident also

Questions were raised on Bengaluru’s hosting last year also. During the celebrations of RCB winning the title, there was chaos in crowd management outside the Chinnaswamy Stadium, in which many people lost their lives. These questions raised regarding security and crowd management also influenced BCCI’s decision.

New schedule of playoffs

BCCI announced the new schedule of playoff matches on Tuesday. In which there was bad news for Bengaluru that they would not be able to host any playoff match. Now the entire playoffs are divided among three cities:

Qualifier 1: 26 May – HPCA Stadium, Dharamshala
Eliminator: May 27 – New International Cricket Stadium, New Chandigarh
Qualifier 2: May 29 – New International Cricket Stadium, New Chandigarh
Final: 31 May – Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad

RCB’s performance

The good news is that RCB is performing well on the field. In the current season, the team is at second place in the points table with 12 points in nine matches. The team is considered a strong contender to reach the final, even though the final match will now be played in Ahmedabad instead of Bengaluru.