IPL 2026 playoffs: Qualifier 1, the Eliminator and what the desk expects

The IPL playoff format is a four-team bracket: the top two from the league stage meet in Qualifier 1, the third and fourth meet in the Eliminator, and the winners of Qualifier 1 and the Eliminator meet in Qualifier 2. The winner of Qualifier 2 plays the loser of Qualifier 1 in the final.

For fantasy readers, the playoff format is a moment of high variance because the captain pool shifts dramatically. In the league stage, the captain pool is the batters who face the most balls. In the playoffs, the captain pool is the batters who face the most balls AND the bowlers who take the most wickets on a knockout night. The reader who treats the playoffs as three extra league games will leave points on the table.

How the format changes the read

Playoff cricket is different from league cricket in three ways. First, the chasing side has a smaller advantage in knockouts because the pressure on the chasing XI is higher. Second, death-overs wickets are worth the same 25 points as powerplay wickets, but the strike rate is higher in knockouts because batters swing harder. Third, the captain multiplier swings harder: a captain who scores 50 in a knockout earns 120 fantasy points, but the same innings from a non-captain earns 60.

The captain pool in the playoffs is therefore wider than in the league stage. A middle-order batter who bats through the innings is a captain pick on a flat deck. A death-overs bowler is a captain pick on a turning deck. The differential captain is the player whose role is clearest: a settled wrist-spinner on a turning deck, a settled death-overs pace bowler on a flat deck.