Courtesy: BCCI/IPL
The suspended Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 is all set to resume from Saturday, May 17 with the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) hosting the defending champions, Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru. With the tournament set to resume in a few days’ time, the IPL General Council has allowed franchises to sign temporary players.
This change by the General Council comes after a few players cited personal reasons for missing out the remainder of the season after the 2025 edition was abruptly halted seeing the escalating cross-border tensions between India and Pakistan. Not only this, situations aggravated after the match between Punjab Kings and Delhi Capitals was called off abruptly.
IPL allows teams to sign temporary replacement players for remainder of IPL 2025
In a communication made to the ten IPL teams, BCCI informed of reassessing the replacement player provision. IPL COO Hemang Amin in an email addressed to the franchises stated, as quoted by Cricbuzz, "Due to non-availability of certain players due to national commitment or personal reasons, or injury or illness, Temporary Replacement Players will be allowed until the conclusion of this tournament."
"This decision is subject to the condition that the Temporary Replacement taken from this point forward, will not be eligible for retention in the following year. Temporary Replacement Players will have to register for the IPL PLayer Auction 2026,” he added, while clarifying that the replacements taken before the suspended period will be eligible for retention ahead of 2026 player auction.
After the comminication was done with the franchises, Delhi Capitals (DC) signed Bangladesh pacer Mustafizur Rahman as Jake Fraser-McGurk’s replacement after the Australian opted out of the remainder of the tournament, citing personal reasons. However, nothing is confirmed on Mitchell Starc’s availability, it is also understood that the signing comes with the Aussie pacer also set to miss the remaining season.
