Indian Premier League Trivia
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48 free Indian Premier League trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Sep 2026.
The Indian Premier League turned a two-month Twenty20 tournament into the richest cricket competition on Earth, and its history is packed with the kind of detail that separates casual viewers from real fans. This quiz runs from the league's 2008 launch, when a Shane Warne-led side nobody rated won the first final off the last ball, through franchise terminations, a two-season suspension for two champions, and the 2022 expansion to ten teams. You will need to know who wore the first Orange Cap, which bowler's 32-wicket season still stands as the benchmark, and which franchise only lifted its first trophy in 2025 after three losing finals. There are questions on the owners, the stadiums, the title sponsors and the odd rules that make the IPL different from every other league, including strategic time-outs and the impact player. Fifty questions, four options each, with a short explanation after every answer. The easy ones reward anyone who watches each spring; the expert ones are for people who remember the 2008 auction prices.
30 of 48 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which governing body organises the IPL?
BCCI
BCCI: in May 2025 the board suspended the league for a week as military tensions escalated between India and Pakistan.
Q 02Which format is played in the IPL?
Twenty20
Each side gets 20 overs, which keeps a match to roughly three hours and fits the league into a March-to-May window.
Q 03Who became the first to take 200 IPL wickets?
Yuzvendra Chahal
Yuzvendra Chahal had played chess for India as a junior, but gave the game up when he could not find sponsors.
Q 04Which wicketkeeper became the costliest buy at the 2025 IPL auction?
Rishabh Pant
Rishabh Pant went for ₹27 crore after Lucknow Super Giants raised their bid from ₹20.75 crore when his old team used a Right to Match card.
Q 05Which team won the inaugural IPL season in 2008?
Rajasthan Royals
Rajasthan Royals had been the cheapest of the eight founding franchises, bought for $67 million, yet they won the title.
Q 06Which Australian leg-spinner captained the 2008 IPL champions?
Shane Warne
Shane Warne had retired from international cricket after the 2006–07 Ashes, more than a year before leading his IPL side to the title.
Q 07Which IPL team is co-owned by Shah Rukh Khan?
Kolkata Knight Riders
Kolkata Knight Riders got local hero Sourav Ganguly as its 'icon player', a rule that kept him out of the auction and off every other team.
Q 08Which stadium is the home ground of KKR?
Eden Gardens
Eden Gardens: at the 1996 World Cup semi-final, crowd trouble as India collapsed stopped play, and the match was awarded to Sri Lanka.
Q 09Which franchise finished bottom of the first IPL season in 2008, then won the title the very next year?
Deccan Chargers
Deccan Chargers turned last place into the 2009 title, but the franchise was terminated in 2012 amid its owner's financial problems.
Q 10By the end of the 2026 season, who was the IPL's all-time leading run-scorer?
Virat Kohli
Virat Kohli was the only player his team retained from its earlier squads before the 2011 auction.
Q 11Which franchise won its first IPL title only in 2025, after three losing finals?
Royal Challengers Bengaluru
Royal Challengers Bengaluru's title celebrations turned to tragedy the next day, when a crowd crush outside their home stadium killed 11 people.
Q 12Which Australian fast bowler became the IPL's most expensive player at the December 2023 auction, at ₹24.75 crore?
Mitchell Starc
Mitchell Starc's record lasted less than a year: two Indian batters passed it at the next auction, in November 2024.
Q 13Which conglomerate owns the Mumbai Indians?
Reliance Industries
Q 21Who won the IPL's first Orange Cap, awarded at the end of the 2008 season?
Shaun Marsh
Shaun Marsh missed Kings XI Punjab's first four matches, yet signed off the league stage with a century.
Q 22By the end of the 2026 season, who had won the IPL's Orange Cap three times?
David Warner
David Warner won all three for Sunrisers Hyderabad, yet in 2021 the franchise removed him as captain and then dropped him.
Q 23Which England batter did Ravichandran Ashwin run out at the non-striker's end in a 2019 IPL match?
Jos Buttler
Jos Buttler was 'Mankaded' by Ashwin, and in 2022 the MCC moved that dismissal from its unfair play law into the run out law.
Reliance Industries later spread the Mumbai Indians name to sister teams in other T20 leagues, including America's Major League Cricket.
Q 14Which ground is the primary home of the Mumbai Indians?
Wankhede Stadium
Wankhede Stadium was built after Mumbai's cricket association fell out over ticketing with the Cricket Club of India, owner of Brabourne Stadium.
Q 15Which company was the IPL's first title sponsor?
DLF
DLF did not renew the deal in 2012, reportedly because a property slump had left the developer under financial strain.
Q 16Which Chinese smartphone brand took over IPL title sponsorship after PepsiCo quit in 2015?
Vivo
Vivo later pulled out of the 2020 season, amid pandemic losses and anti-China sentiment in India after a border clash.
Q 17The 2009 IPL season was relocated to which country?
South Africa
South Africa: India's government would not commit security forces to the league during the general election.
Q 18Due to COVID-19, the 2020 IPL was played in which country?
UAE
UAE: it was the league's second stint there, after the opening matches of 2014 moved to the Gulf during India's general election.
Q 19The IPL's Orange Cap is awarded to which player each season?
Highest run-scorer
The current leader wears the cap in the field while the season is live, so it can change heads several times.
Q 20The IPL's Purple Cap goes to which player each season?
Leading wicket-taker
Leading wicket-taker: Harshal Patel moved between teams for years before winning the cap in 2021, and he won it again in 2024.
Q 24By the end of the 2026 season, who was the only overseas player to have won the IPL's Emerging Player award?
Mustafizur Rahman
Mustafizur Rahman won it in 2016, when his death bowling helped Sunrisers Hyderabad win the title.
Q 25By the end of the 2026 season, who had won the IPL Most Valuable Player award a record three times?
Sunil Narine
Sunil Narine: MVP points count dot balls and wickets as well as fours and sixes, so a spinner who also bats scores both ways.
Q 26Who was the most expensive buy at the first IPL player auction in 2008?
MS Dhoni
MS Dhoni's $1.5 million took almost a third of Chennai's $5 million cap for its whole squad.
Q 27Which IPL rule, new in 2023, lets teams bring on a tactical substitute?
Impact Player
Impact Player: critics including Ricky Ponting said it would shrink the role of all-rounders, since teams can pick specialists and swap one in.
Q 28Why were CSK and RR suspended for two seasons?
Illegal betting
Illegal betting: the Lodha committee also banned CSK official Gurunath Meiyappan and RR co-owner Raj Kundra from cricket for life.
Q 29Which two teams replaced the suspended CSK and RR for two seasons?
Rising Pune Supergiant and Gujarat Lions
Rising Pune Supergiant and Gujarat Lions were refused any extension, so both folded when the suspended sides returned for 2018.
Q 30Why was Kochi Tuskers Kerala expelled from the IPL?
Missed bank guarantee
Missed bank guarantee: the league cashed the franchise's previous guarantee and terminated its contract in September 2011.