A new season of the IPL dawns on us all, and with the same, a whole new set of rules and regulations has arrived as well. The BCCI, after hosting a meeting of the team captains and referees on Thursday, has reportedly arrived at various rule changes to be introduced in the 2025 season of the IPL. With IPL 2025 set to kick off from March 22 onwards, let’s go through all the major rule changes and the newly-introduced regulations here: 1. Saliva Ban Lifted One of the most interesting changes that has been brought in for the 2025 season is the reintroduction of the use of saliva to shine the cricket ball. The practice was banned by ICC in 2022, in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. The IPL included the ICC ban in its playing conditions in the aftermath of COVID-19 as well but was always aware that its rules are outside the purview of cricket’s governing body. But after much deliberation with the captains of all IPL teams, and the pleas of players such as Mohammad Shami, the BCCI has reportedly agreed to bring back the rule, thereby finally allowing pacers yet again to utilise the benefits of swing and reverse swing to the finest. 2. Usage Of Second New Ball In Second Innings To Counteract Dew Factor In an effort to help teams counteract the effect of dew late in the games, the BCCI have reportedly also introduced the ability to allow teams the use of a second ball in the second innings of the game after the 11th over. A BCCI official clarified that this is not a rule change, but rather a collective agreement by the teams and the umpires, and also mentioned that the 2nd ball would be an old one that had wear and tear. Another report by Cricbuzz mentions that the decision for using the second ball will be on the umpire to take the call and this would be in effect for primarily the night games. 3. No Match Bans For IPL Captains For Over-Rate Offences To make it easier on captains, the BCCI has also reportedly revised the playing conditions for the 2025 edition which includes the penalties for over-rate offenses being dialed down. According to reports, the BCCI has opted to do away with match bans on the captains for the coming season and instead will be handed demerit points. A ban will only come into effect in extreme cases. Captains have received match-bans due to slow over-rates in the past. Most recently, in the 2024 season, Rishabh Pant was forced to miss out on an all-important clash against RCB while MI’s Hardik Pandya will not be a part of the side’s opening game against CSK due to his offense in the previous season. 4. HawkEye To Be Used To Track Wides Another major change is that the DRS review will be available to contest decisions for height wides and wides outside the off-stump. Ball-tracking has been used for judging LBW calls for many years now. Last year, HawkEye implemented it for confirming waist-high no-balls.