IPL 2018: Why Rajasthan Royals hired Ben Stokes for Rs. 12.5 crore.

What is the IPL and when does it start?

The IPL is a Twenty20 cricket tournament featuring eight teams. The 2018 edition will be the 11th year and the season starts on 4 April. There will be a total of 60 matches played across India. The final will take place on 27 May in Mumbai.

Which teams play in the IPL?

There are eight IPL franchises: Chennai Super Kings (winners in 2010 and 2011); Delhi Daredevils; Kings XI Punjab; Kolkata Knight Riders (winners in 2012 and 2014); Mumbai Indians (winners in 2013, 2015 and 2017); Rajasthan Royals (winners in 2008); Royal Challengers Bangalore; Sunrisers Hyderabad (2016).

How does the IPL season work?

The eight teams will play each other twice in a home-and-away format. At the end of the double round-robin group stage the top four teams will qualify for the play-offs. The top two teams face off in the qualifier one round and the third and fourth-placed teams play in the eliminator round. The winner of qualifier one goes straight through to the final, while the loser plays the victor of the eliminator match for a place in the 27 May showpiece event.

How to watch the IPL on TV in the UK

Sky sports has announced a new multi-year deal to broadcast the IPL. From the 2018 season, Sky Sports will show 60 live matches each year in the UK and Ireland.  

IPL team squads: how they will line up in 2018

Teams have a squad size of 18 players minimum and 25 maximum. There is also a maximum of eight overseas players in each squad.

• Rajasthan Royals (23 players): Steve Smith*, Ben Stokes, Jaydev Unadkat, Sanju Samson, Jofra Archer, Krishnappa Gowtham, Jos Buttler, Ajinkya Rahane, Darcy Short, Rahul Tripathi, Dhawal Kulkarni, Zahir Khan Pakteen, Ben Laughlin, Stuart Binny, Dushmantha Chameera, Anureet Singh, Aryaman Vikram Birla, Midhun S, Shreyas Gopal, Prashant Chopra, Jatin Saxena, Ankit Sharma, Mahipal Lomror.
• Chennai Super Kings (25 players): MS Dhoni*, Ravindra Jadeja*, Suresh Raina*, Kedar Jadhav, Dwayne Bravo. Karn Sharma, Shane Watson, Shardul Thakur, Ambati Rayudu, Murali Vijay, Harbhajan Singh, Faf Du Plessis, Mark Wood, Sam Billings, Imran Tahir, Deepak Chahar, Mitchell Santner, Lungisani Ngidi, Asif K M, N Jagadeesan, Kanishk Seth, Monu Singh, Dhruv Shorey, Kshitiz Sharma, Chaitanya Bishnoi
• Delhi Daredevils (25 players): Rishabh Pant*, Shreyas Iyer*, Chris Morris*, Glenn Maxwell, Kagiso Rabada, Amit Mishra, Shahbaz Nadeem, Vijay Shankar, Rahul Tewatia, Mohammad Shami, Gautam Gambhir, Trent Boult, Colin Munro, Daniel Christian, Jason Roy, Naman Ojha, Prithvi Shaw, Gurkeerat Singh Mann, Avesh Khan, Abhishek Sharma, Jayant Yadav, Harshal Patel, Manjot Kalra, Sandeep Lamichhane, Sayan Ghosh
• Kings XI Punjab (21 players): Axar Patel*, KL Rahul, Ravichandran Ashwin, Andrew Tye, Aaron Finch, Marcus Stoinis, Karun Nair, Mujeeb Zadran, Ankit Singh Rajpoot, David Miller, Mohit Sharma, Barinder Singh Sran, Yuvraj Singh, Christopher Gayle, Ben Dwarshuis, Akshdeep Nath, Manoj Tiwary, Mayank Agarwal, Manzoor Dar, Pardeep Sahu, Mayank Dagar 
• Kolkata Knight Riders (19 players): Sunil Narine*, Andre Russell*, Chris Lynn, Mitchell Starc, Dinesh Karthik, Robin Uthappa, Kuldeep Singh Yadav, Piyush Chawla, Nitish Rana, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Shivam Mavi, Mitchell Johnson, Shubman Gill, Ranganath Vinay Kumar, Rinku Singh, Cameron Delport, Javon Searless, Apoorv Vijay Wankhade, Ishank Jaggi 
• Mumbai Indians (25 players): Rohit Sharma*, Hardik Pandya*, Jasprit Bumrah*, Krunal Pandya, Ishan Kishan, Kieron Pollard, Pat Cummins, Evin Lewis, Suryakumar Yadav, Ben Cutting, Mustafizur Rahman, Rahul Chahar, Pradeep Sangwan, Jason Behrendorff, Jean-Paul Duminy, Saurabh Tiwary, Tajinder Dhillon, Akila Dhananjaya, Nidheesh M D Dinesan, Aditya Tare, Siddhesh Dinesh Lad, Mayank Markande, Sharad Lumba, Anukul Roy, Mohsin Khan
• Royal Challengers Bangalore (24 players): Virat Kohli*, AB de Villiers*, Sarfaraz Khan*, Chris Woakes, Yuzvendra Singh Chahal, Umesh Yadav, Brendon McCullum, Washington Sundar, Navdeep Saini, Quinton De Kock, Mohammed Siraj, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Colin De Grandhomme, M. Ashwin, Parthiv Patel, Moeen Ali, Mandeep Singh, Manan Vohra, Pawan Negi, Tim Southee, Kulwant Khejroliya, Aniket Choudhary, Pavan Deshpande, Anirudha Ashok Joshi
• Sunrisers Hyderabad (25 players): David Warner*, Bhuvneshwar Kumar*, Kane Williamson, Manish Pandey, Rashid Khan Arman, Shikhar Dhawan, Wriddhiman Saha, Siddarth Kaul, Deepak Hooda, Syed Khaleel Ahmed, Sandeep Sharma, Carlos Brathwaite, Shakib Al Hasan, Yusuf Pathan, Shreevats Goswami, Mohammad Nabi, Chris Jordan, Basil Thampi, T Natarajan, Sachin Baby, Bipul Sharma, Syed Mehdi Hasan, Ricky Bhui, Tanmay Agarwal