IPL 2026 — fixtures, captain picks, contest slate

The IPL 2026 editorial desk tracks every match from the opening fixture to the final. Each match carries a captain-pick recommendation, a salary-cap cheat sheet, and a contest slate that includes free and paid contests across the captain-led scoring engine.

Captain picks for the IPL 2026 slate are weighted against the past eight innings, the venue history and the opposition match-up. The desk publishes one captain-pick tile per fixture rather than per match, so the captain recommendation is anchored to the venue rather than to the day.