The 16th edition of the country's most popular T20 cricket league, IPL, will start on Friday.

The first league match will be between defending champions Gujarat Titans and four-time Chennai Super Kings at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.

Bollywood actresses Tamannaah Bhatia, Rashmika Mandhana and singer Arijit Singh will perform before the opening match at the IPL opening ceremony.

This will be the first time since 2018 that the opening ceremony of IPL will be held.

The tournament will be played from March 31 to May 28.

74 total matches will be played in 59 days

18 doubleheader matches will be played this time

IPL's 1000th match will be between Mumbai and Chennai on May 6

IPL matches will be played in 12 cities

This time, players like Rishabh Pant, Jasprit Bumrah, Shreyas Iyer, Jhye Richardson, Kyle Jamison, Jonny Bairstow, Will Jacques and famous Krishna will not play in IPL due to injury.