BCCI has made a significant addition to the IPL 2026 match playing conditions that has gone relatively under the radar given everything else happening in the tournament, but its implications for how teams operate on matchdays are considerable.

With 13 of the 74 scheduled matches already played, the board has issued a new directive restricting the movement of benched players during games, a tightening of existing rules that effectively changes the matchday routine for every franchise in the competition.

What the new IPL 2026 rule actually says as per BCCI

The core of the new directive is straightforward. All benched players who are not among the 16 named by the team management in the official team sheet are not permitted to move around the ground during a match.

They cannot carry drinks onto the field, they cannot deliver messages and they cannot enter the playing area in any capacity. Only players within the designated 16 can perform those functions.

Additionally, no more than five players wearing bibs, drawn either from the nominated 16 or from the rest of the squad, are permitted to move around the boundary rope at any given time. Everyone else must remain in the dugout and cannot move between the boundary line and the LED advertising boards.

Multiple team sources confirmed the directive to Cricbuzz, with one source saying instructions had been passed only recently and that the rules had caught some teams off guard given how late in the tournament the addendum arrived.

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The IPL 2026 rules it tightens and why it matters

The new ruling is an enforcement and tightening of two existing clauses in the IPL match playing conditions, 11.5.2, which governs how and when drinks can be taken onto the field, and 24.1.4, which deals with squad members who are not playing or acting as substitute fielders and requires them to wear team training bibs while on the playing area.

The exact reason for issuing this addendum mid-tournament has not been made public by the BCCI, but the directive suggests the board has identified situations across the opening 13 matches where the existing rules were either being stretched or not followed to the letter.

Normally an IPL squad has up to 25 players, of whom 16 are named in the team sheet for each match, meaning a significant number of squad members who previously had relatively free movement around the boundary during games will now be confined to the dugout for the remainder of the tournament.