Mumbai and Pune to split IPL matches

The entire 15th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) will be played in a bio-secure environment in the western state of Maharashtra from March 26, the Board of Control for Cricket in India said on Friday.

Mumbai will host 55 matches in three stadiums in and around the city while Pune will host the remaining 15 games — which means air travel will not be required for the league's 10 franchises.

"The venue for the playoff matches will be decided later," BCCI secretary Jay Shah said in a statement a day after the IPL governing council meeting.

The governing council considered air travel "a major threat for the spread of COVID-19 infection", he added.

The entire 2020 edition and the second half of last year's competition were held in the United Arab Emirates after a surge in COVID-19 numbers in India.

The league will welcome two new franchises this season after Lucknow and Ahmedabad paid a combined $1.7 billion to join the world's richest cricket league.

The teams, divided into two groups, will play a total of 14 league matches each with the final scheduled on May 29.

Each team will play four matches at Wankhede Stadium and DY Patil Stadium in Mumbai, and three matches each at Brabourne Stadium (CCI), Mumbai and MCA International Stadium, Pune.

But Australian representatives won't be able to join the two-month tournament until after April 5 due to a clash with the limited-overs leg of the tour of Pakistan.

The first of Australia's three-match ODI series against Pakistan is scheduled to begin on March 29 in Rawalpindi, with the tour concluding with a sole T20I on April 5.

Star quartet Pat Cummins, David Warner, Josh Hazlewood and Glenn Maxwell were notable absentees from the 16-player squad for the white-ball fixtures but national selection panel chair George Bailey said "we certainly won't be releasing players to the IPL while Australia are playing".

Of the 13 Australians retained on existing IPL deals or bought at this month's mega-auction, the only ones currently not bound by Cricket Australia contracts (and thereby available from the tournament's start) are Daniel Sams, Riley Meredith, Nathan Coulter-Nile and $A1.53 million purchase Tim David.