The IPL 2025 restarted on May 17 after a week of being suspended due to India-Pakistan tensions. The playoffs, which were supposed to take place from May 19-25, was pushed back to May 29- June 3. The matches were earlier supposed to be held in Hyderabad and Kolkata. However, now they have been moved to two completely different venues. The Playoff 1 and Eliminator will be held on May 29 and 30 at the Maharaja Yadavindra Singh Stadium in Mullanpur. The Playoff 2 and the Final will be held on June 1 and 3 at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. It has now come to light that Harbhajan Singh had a role to play in this.

According to a report by IANS, Harbhajan Singh took a lot of pain in convincing the top brass of the BCCI to move the IPL 2025 playoffs to Mullanpur. He convinced them of the stadium's sustainability to host the playoff matches in the current weather conditions.

“Harbhajan pushed hard for it. He convinced key decision-makers that New Chandigarh is ready, both in terms of facilities and audience enthusiasm. He wasn’t just lobbying; he was deeply involved in inspection visits, pitch discussions, and logistical planning," a source close to the proceedings told IANS.

Harbhajan is the Chief Cricketing Advisor of the Punjab Cricket Association (PCA), and has been actively voicing concerns regarding the lack of international matches in Punjab after the decline of Mohali as an international venue.

According to an official statement by the BCCI the new venues of the IPL 2025 playoffs have been chosen keeping in mind the favourable weather consitions.

"Hyderabad and Kolkata were initially supposed to host the last four games before the one week suspension of the tournament.The new venues for the Playoffs were decided by the IPL Governing Council keeping in mind the weather conditions and other parameters," the statement read.