IPL 2023: Five Interesting Facts about IPL Season 16

With much anticipation, the nation is waiting for the Indian Premier League. The annual cricket frenzy of India is set to take the centre stage from March 31 and will be continuing till its conclusion on May 28.

Chennai Super Kings will take on defending Champions Gujarat Titans in the first match of the season at the Narendra Modi stadium in Ahmedabad.

As the ten teams prepare for their epic battle, we shall take a sneak peek today and try to grind out some fascinating facts which are associated with this season's IPL.

IPL 2023: Interesting Facts about IPL season 16

Here are the five interesting facts about IPL 2023-

1. IPL becomes pan-India again

The IPL 2023 will come as a fresh air to many parts of India. This will be the first time IPL will be played across the length and breadth of the country since the COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2020 and 2021, the tournament was organised in the UAE, while last year, it was limited to only in Mumbai for all the group stage matches, while the playoffs and the final were played in Kolkata and Ahmedabad respectively. A return of IPL to all parts of the country will be a great thing for the fans and the franchises.

2. Lucknow to welcome LSG

Among the ten franchises, Lucknow Super Giants are the only team who are yet to play an IPL match in their home ground. The LSG franchise played their matches in Mumbai and Kolkata last season and will get the taste of their home support and home ground for the first time since their existence.

The KL Rahul-led side will be taking on fellow Northern rivals Delhi Capitals on April 1 and thus make their debut at their home ground.

3. IPL streaming destination changes

Since the live streaming of the IPL started, Star Sports and Disney+ Hotstar were synonymous with the IPL for the fans. But things have changed this season.

Although Star Sports network will provide the telecast on TV, fans will have to switch to JioCinema to watch the live stream of the IPL. It is true that there won't be any subscription costs to live stream IPL this season, but it is definitely a massive change in the digital broadcast rights of IPL and BCCI as a whole.

This is also the first time there will be a 4K video resolution in the IPL matches as fans can enjoy a much higher quality of video during the streaming.

4. The arrival of Impact Player

For the first time in IPL history, a team can field a substitute player as an Impact Player in the match.

Impact Player is a player each team can choose from a substitute list before their match who can come on anytime during the match as a replacement for another player. And the interesting thing is that the Impact Player can go on to bat or bowl for his respective side in the second inning of the match. This will definitely make the tournament more interesting as the dynamism of the matches will increase with the introduction of this new rule.

But an impact player can only be an Indian player unless there are less than 4 overseas players in the playing XI. Teams can name four substitutes before the match, and only one out of them can be introduced as the impact player during the match.

5. The Group matches shuffle

The 10 IPL teams have been divided into two groups.

Group A: Mumbai Indians, Rajasthan Royals, Kolkata Knight Riders, Delhi Capitals, Lucknow Super Giants

Group B: Chennai Super Kings, Punjab Kings, Sunrisers Hyderabad, Royal Challengers Bangalore, Gujarat Titans

In previous years, teams from the same group used to play twice with each other, while playing twice with one of the teams from the other group, followed by one match against the remaining four teams of the other group.

But it has reversed this year. As teams from Group A will play twice against all the teams of Group B. And they will play once against the remaining four teams of their own group.