The Indian Premier League (IPL) is cricket's most lucrative franchise-based tournament. Launched in 2008, it revolutionised the sport, helping elevate the Twenty20 (T20) format into cricket's most popular. Unlike Test cricket, played over five days, T20 matches are short and prize power-hitting over patience.
The IPL has helped embed cricket in India's hinterlands. Coaching academies have proliferated, sustained by parents desperate to raise the next IPL star. The IPL uses an "impact player" rule that allows specialist batters to bat without also having to field.
Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, who plays for the Rajasthan Royals, broke the record for sixes in a single IPL season in 2026 (clearing the boundary 65 times, breaking a 14-year-old record). At 14 in 2025 he became the youngest-ever professional player to score a century. His father sold farmland in Bihar—India's poorest state—to fund a daily commute to coaching in Patna.
If you are good, you will be assigned all the work. If you are real good, you will get out of it.