MLC Cricket 2026 Complete Season Guide & Where to Watch Live

Major League Cricket 2026: The Complete Guide to Season Four

American cricket is no longer an experiment. Four years in, and Major League Cricket has broadcast deals in 90+ countries, ticket sales that went up 53% year-on-year in 2025, and a signing that just changed everything — R Ashwin becoming the first India-capped player to ever compete in MLC.

Season four runs June 18 to July 18. Here is everything you need to know: every team, every squad, the full schedule breakdown, where to watch, what the pitches are like, and who the players to follow are.

The Six Teams and Their Full Squads

MI New York (Defending Champions)

Captain: Nicholas Pooran | Ownership: Indiawin Sports (Mumbai Indians / Mukesh Ambani)

Nicholas Pooran, Kieron Pollard, Quinton de Kock, Ryan Rickelton, Trent Boult, Corbin Bosch, Romario Shepherd, Tristan Luus, Allah Ghazanfar, Corey Anderson, Monank Patel, Tajinder Singh, Nosthush Kenjige, Agni Chopra, Rushil Ugarkar, Kunwarjeet Singh, Sunny Patel, Faisal Ahmadzai

MI New York are the most dominant side in MLC history — two titles in three seasons (2023 and 2025). They beat Washington Freedom by just 5 runs in last year's final, with a 22-year-old American, Rushil Ugarkar, bowling the decisive final over. They are everyone's target.

Texas Super Kings

Captain: Faf du Plessis | Head Coach: Stephen Fleming | Ownership: Chennai Super Kings / Anurag Jain / Ross Perot Jr.

Faf du Plessis, Sikandar Raza, Shadley van Schalkwyk, and a core of American domestic players. Home ground: Grand Prairie Stadium, Dallas. The Super Kings open the entire tournament on June 18 against Seattle Orcas.

San Francisco Unicorns

Captain: Matthew Short | Head Coach: Cameron White | Ownership: Cambrian Ventures (Anand Rajaraman / Venky Harinarayan)

Finn Allen (WK), Ravichandran Ashwin, Haris Rauf, Xavier Bartlett, Aaron Hardie, Matthew Short (c), Connor Esterhuizen, Lhuan-dre Pretorius, Hammad Azam, Mohammad Ilyas, Hassan Khan, Zia-ul-Haq, Juanoy Drysdale, Sanjay Krishnamurthy, Saideep Ganesh, Aakarshit Gomel, Ollie Peake, Anirudh Immanuel

The splashiest off-season movers. Ashwin's signing alongside Haris Rauf and Finn Allen makes them a genuine title contender.

Washington Freedom

Head Coach: Ricky Ponting | Ownership: Sanjay Govil

Glenn Maxwell, Steve Smith (c), Rachin Ravindra, Marco Jansen, Lockie Ferguson, Mark Chapman, Mukhtar Ahmed, Andries Gous (WK), Lahiru Milantha (WK), Ben Dwarshuis, Amila Aponso, Saurabh Netravalkar, Asif Mehmood, Abhishek Paradkar, Yasir Mohammad, Ian Holland, Obus Pienaar, Jack Edwards, Mitchell Owen

Ricky Ponting as head coach. Glenn Maxwell still with the team. Washington topped the league stage in 2025 before losing the final. Don't write them off.

Seattle Orcas

Head Coach: Adam Voges | Ownership: GMR Group / Satya Nadella / S Somasegar

Marcus Stoinis, Shimron Hetmyer, Dasun Shanaka, Lungi Ngidi, Tanveer Sangha, Tim Seifert (WK), Shehan Jayasuriya, Matthew Breetzke, Ottneil Baartman, Harmeet Singh, Sharad Lumba, Rahul Jariwala (WK), Cameron Gannon, Jasdeep Singh, Ayan Desai, Shayan Jahangir, Sujit Nayak, Tim Robinson

Adam Voges takes over from Matthew Mott, who was let go after a difficult 2025 start. Marcus Stoinis and Lungi Ngidi are the names to watch.

Los Angeles Knight Riders

Captain: Jason Holder | Ownership: Knight Riders Group (Shah Rukh Khan / Juhi Chawla / Jay Mehta)

Sunil Narine, Andre Russell, Jason Holder (c), Alex Hales, Colin Munro, Andre Fletcher (WK), Nitish Kumar, Jahmar Hamilton (WK), Ali Khan, Lloyd Pope, Shadley van Schalkwyk, Karthik Gattepalli, Saif Badar, Kristopher Ramsaran, Unmukt Chand, Carmi le Roux, Matthew Tromp

The KKR link is impossible to ignore — Narine, Russell, and Holder give this team serious firepower. The Knight Riders also just opened their brand-new dedicated home ground in Pomona, California.

The Full Match Schedule

The tournament is played in four phases across three venues. All times are local US.

Phase 1 — Grand Prairie, Texas (June 18–22)

(CDT = UTC−5 | CDT → ET: same zone during summer | CDT → IST: +11:30 hrs)

Double-header day ⭐ = 2025 Final rematch

Phase 2 — Oakland Coliseum, California (June 24–28) (PDT = UTC−7 | PDT → ET: +3 hrs | PDT → IST: +13:30 hrs)

Double-header day

Phase 3 — Knight Riders Cricket Field, Pomona (July 1–5) (PDT = UTC−7 | PDT → ET: +3 hrs | PDT → IST: +13:30 hrs)

Phase 4 — Grand Prairie Return (July 8–12)

(CDT = UTC−5 | CDT → ET: +1 hr | CDT → IST: +11:30 hrs)

Playoffs — Oakland Coliseum (July 15–18)

(PDT = UTC−7 | PDT → ET: +3 hrs | PDT → IST: +13:30 hrs)

⏰ Time zone key: CDT (Central Daylight Time) = UTC−5 | PDT (Pacific Daylight Time) = UTC−7 | ET (Eastern Time) = UTC−4 | IST (India Standard Time) = UTC+5:30. All IST times shown fall the following morning. Double-header days feature an afternoon match (~3:00 PM local) and an evening match (~7:30 PM local).

Note: Match 5 on June 20 — MI New York vs Washington Freedom — is a direct rematch of the 2025 final. That one is worth staying up for.

Download the Full MLC 2026 Match Schedule

Get the complete phase-by-phase match schedule — all venues, dates, and ET kickoff times — in one printable PDF.

⬇ Download MLC 2026 Schedule (PDF)

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Where to Watch MLC 2026 Live

Free access: Willow has historically offered select Sunday night matches free via willow.tv and the Cricbuzz app. Worth checking as the season gets underway.

Pakistan fans: A Sports carries all MLC action on standard packages, the same channel that broadcast PSL 2026.

What Kind of Pitches to Expect — and How They Differ from Home

This is the question subcontinental fans always want answered, and the honest answer is: the batting conditions in the USA are significantly more favorable than anything you're used to watching in Karachi, Lahore, Dhaka, or Mumbai.

Grand Prairie, Dallas

The pitch at Grand Prairie is described by analysts as flat — almost road-like. Spinners, despite the large South Asian diaspora presence in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, get very little assistance from the surface. The boundaries are short (longest at 76 meters, shortest at 55 meters), which pushes scores up fast. In MLC 2025, five Grand Prairie matches were decided in the final over. The average first-innings score across MLC history here sits around 167, and San Francisco Unicorns once posted 215/5 on this ground.

Compare that to Karachi's National Bank Stadium, where the pitch is slower, the ball tends to turn on days two and three of Tests, and dew plays a significant role in day-night matches. Spinners like Shadab and Noman Ali thrive there. They would likely struggle in Grand Prairie.

Oakland Coliseum

Oakland uses drop-in pitches — pre-prepared slabs imported and laid into the ground specifically for cricket. That process produces more consistent bounce than a natural wicket but can result in surfaces that are slightly harder and quicker. The Bay Area climate is cooler and windier than Texas, which slows aerial ball movement slightly. The ground has a 12,000-capacity cricket configuration. This is also where all four playoff matches happen, including the final.

Knight Riders Cricket Field, Pomona (New in 2026)

This is the brand-new venue, replacing Broward County in Florida. Purpose-built for cricket and already designated as the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics cricket venue. No significant match history yet, so pitch behavior is harder to project, but as a newer purpose-built ground, early conditions should favor pace and bounce — closer to Australian conditions than subcontinental ones.

The core difference from South Asian pitches

South Asian surfaces — Karachi, Multan, Ahmedabad, Chittagong — are typically dry, slow, and low-bouncing. The ball grips the surface, spinners extract sharp turn after 10 overs, and anything above 180 in T20 is usually a competitive chase. American venues do the opposite. Ball comes onto the bat quickly, pace bowlers get carry rather than wickets, and spinners mostly have to change pace and vary their lengths rather than turn the ball. If you're a subcontinental spinner who relies on big turn and slow flight, the US doesn't suit you. If you can bowl cutters, googlies, or a flat attacking quick delivery like Ashwin's carrom ball, you'll still be effective. That is, in part, why Ashwin makes sense in MLC and not a spinner who relies on turning pitches to generate wickets.

The Big Names to Follow in MLC 2026

Ravichandran Ashwin (San Francisco Unicorns) The story of the season before a ball has been bowled. At 39, Ashwin becomes the first India-capped player in MLC history. His carrom ball and flat, attacking off-spin are better suited to flat American pitches than you might expect — he's never relied purely on turn, and his variation is his weapon. This is a landmark moment for the league's credibility.

Nicholas Pooran (MI New York) The best T20 batter in the world over a 12-month period in 2024-25. He captains the defending champions and is the most destructive left-hander in the format. Watch what he does at Oakland — short square boundaries suit him perfectly.

Andre Russell (LA Knight Riders) Every franchise that hasn't managed to lock Russell up has paid for it in other leagues. LA Knight Riders have him in 2026. His hitting from ball one and his ability to bowl hostile mid-overs spells make him a match-winner regardless of conditions.

Glenn Maxwell (Washington Freedom) Ricky Ponting's team is built around Maxwell's ability to turn games in a single over. He's also a useful third-option spinner on flatter pitches. In 2025, Washington topped the league stage. They have the pieces to go further.

Haris Rauf (San Francisco Unicorns) Pakistan's most complete T20 quick. His yorker is the best in the current game, and his ability to take pace off and skid the ball through the top of the bat makes him lethal on the quicker American surfaces.

Trent Boult (MI New York) The left-arm swing specialist is still the best powerplay bowler in T20 cricket. His ability to shape the new ball both ways in the heavy Dallas night air makes him particularly dangerous in the opening block of overs at Grand Prairie.

Sunil Narine (LA Knight Riders) Now in his late 30s, Narine has reinvented himself as an opening batter while still being a potent spinner. He opened for KKR in IPL to devastating effect. Expect LA to deploy him at the top — if he fires, they become a different team.

Faf du Plessis (Texas Super Kings) At 41, he's still one of the cleanest strikers in the format. The home crowd in Dallas will get behind him from ball one. If Texas are going to make the playoffs, they need him batting at the top and performing.

FAQ: MLC 2026

Is R Ashwin the first Indian to play in MLC?

Yes. Ashwin's signing with San Francisco Unicorns makes him the first player ever capped by India to compete in Major League Cricket. It signals that MLC has now crossed a threshold — the BCCI's retired generation are viewing the US league as a legitimate destination, not a retirement afterthought.

Will MLC 2026 expand beyond six teams?

MLC has announced plans to expand to eight teams by 2027, with a potential Canadian franchise among the options being explored. The 2026 season remains a six-team competition.

Why does Oakland host the final for the first time this year?

Previous MLC finals were all held at Grand Prairie in Dallas. Moving the final to Oakland Coliseum in 2026 is a deliberate step to broaden the tournament's geography and build the Bay Area as a cricket hub — especially given that Pomona (right next door, effectively) hosts Olympic cricket in 2028.