IPL 2025: Good news IPL franchise as South Africa cricket board's decision brings relief to franchises

Thursday morning starts with good news for IPL teams that are still in the race to get a chance in the playoffs. The revised IPL 2025 schedule pushed the previously settled dates behind, which left the franchises with an uncertainty about the availability of several overseas players.

South Africa and Australia announced their respective squads for the forthcoming World Test Championship Finale (WTC Final), where multiple star players who are associated with Indian Premier League teams need to leave India to join their respective national camps for preparations.

The WTC final is scheduled to start on June 11 in London, for which Australia and South Africa's cricket governing boards will arrange their practice sessions days before the showdown. On the other hand, IPL 2025 will resume on May 17, and the final match will be held on June 3.

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It is assumed that the South African and Australian players who are in the WTC squad can leave India before that, though things are not clear enough. According to some fresh reports, the SA cricket board can start their WTC preparations on June 3, the same for the IPL 2025 final.

The final call yet to come

If the reports are to be believed, then the players from those nations can miss the final of the Indian Premier League, but perhaps they can be available for the rest of the group and play-off fixtures. Along with this, it'll be interesting to see when the South African players will go to take their flights to North London. The last match of the playoffs is scheduled for June 1. If South Africa starts their preparations on June 3, there will be high chances for Protean cricketers to leave India before June 1, the date for the last playoff match. 

SA squad for WTC final: Temba Bavuma (capt.), David Bedingham, Corbin Bosch, Tony de Zorzi, Marco Jansen, Keshav Maharaj, Aiden Markram Wiaan Mulder, Senuran Muthusamy, Lungi Ngidi, Dane Paterson, Kagiso Rabada, Ryan Rickelton, Tristan Stubbs, and Kyle Verreynne.